What techniques does Achebe use to characterize Michael Obi in "Dead Men's Path"? How does this characterization imply the ultimate failure of...

Chinua Achebe indirectly characterizes Michael Obi as an enthusiastic, progressive headmaster. Achebe develops Obi's character through his actions and comments. Initially, Obi is depicted as a positive man with good intentions, but he is later portrayed as a stubborn, unsympathetic individual. Achebe portrays Obi's outspoken personality and depicts how he condemns the older, less educated men in his field. Achebe also portrays Obi's affinity for modernity through his comments. Obi says, "We shall have such...

Chinua Achebe indirectly characterizes Michael Obi as an enthusiastic, progressive headmaster. Achebe develops Obi's character through his actions and comments. Initially, Obi is depicted as a positive man with good intentions, but he is later portrayed as a stubborn, unsympathetic individual. Achebe portrays Obi's outspoken personality and depicts how he condemns the older, less educated men in his field. Achebe also portrays Obi's affinity for modernity through his comments. Obi says, "We shall have such beautiful gardens and everything will be just modern and delightful..." (Achebe  1). Obi's "modern methods" transform the school and as he puts all his efforts into creating a new, aesthetic learning environment. Achebe further develops Obi's character by illustrating his reaction to the village priest. Michael Obi's true personality is depicted, and he is unsympathetic and rigid. He does not compromise or listen to Ani and decides to keep the path blocked. Obi's arrogance and stubborn attitude imply his ultimate failure. The next day the villagers vandalize his school after a woman dies during childbirth and the inspectors write a scathing review of Obi's intolerant character.

The net charge in a current carrying conductor is zero; even it experiences a force in a magnetic field. Why?

In this case, we must remember that the magnetic field acts with a magnetic force on the moving charge. The Lorentz equation describes the magnitude of this force:

Fm = q(v x B)

q, is the electric charge of the particle in motion.

v, is the speed of the charged particle.

B, is the magnetic field induction.

In a conductor carrying current, the electrons move in a preferred direction from the negative terminal to the...

In this case, we must remember that the magnetic field acts with a magnetic force on the moving charge. The Lorentz equation describes the magnitude of this force:

Fm = q(v x B)

q, is the electric charge of the particle in motion.

v, is the speed of the charged particle.

B, is the magnetic field induction.

In a conductor carrying current, the electrons move in a preferred direction from the negative terminal to the positive terminal of the supply. The net charge is zero because, during the same time interval, the number of electrons that come from the negative terminal of the source, is equal to the amount of these that enter in the source by the positive terminal.

Therefore, although the net charge of the conductor is zero, there are electrons moving in its interior. In these conditions we have that the magnetic field exerts a force on each electron moving with velocity v along the conductor. The sum of all the forces acting on the electrons in motion will manifest as a force that acts on the conductor.

What are cliffhangers in The Devil's Arithmetic?

A cliffhanger is an ending that creates further suspense.  In the case of The Devil’s Arithmetic, there are quite a few cliffhangers at the ends of chapters. 

The first real cliffhanger is at the end of chapter three when Hannah opens the door and, instead of seeing the hall, sees a field with a strange figure singing about death.  No explanation is given until we get to the next chapter. 

The next cliffhanger is...

A cliffhanger is an ending that creates further suspense.  In the case of The Devil’s Arithmetic, there are quite a few cliffhangers at the ends of chapters. 

The first real cliffhanger is at the end of chapter three when Hannah opens the door and, instead of seeing the hall, sees a field with a strange figure singing about death.  No explanation is given until we get to the next chapter. 

The next cliffhanger is at the end of chapter eight when the Nazis pull up to the synagogue with large trucks and demand the Jewish people file inside to be relocated.  This is a scary scene (and a stark contrast to the wedding that was supposed to be taking place).  If the reader is familiar with the Holocaust, the reader knows what kind of place the Jews are going: a concentration camp.  Again, the suspense rises.

A further cliffhanger is at the end of chapter sixteen, which is a story about the earth “swallowing” the black heart of the Nazi beast.  The suspense rises here because it makes the reader wonder how this can possibly happen with all of the hopelessness and helplessness that surrounds the Jewish people in the concentration camps.

The final cliffhanger is the most important one at the end of chapter eighteen.  Hannah takes off Rivka’s scarf and declares the following:

Run for your life, Rivka ... for your future ... run ... and remember.

Hannah then walks bravely into the gas chamber in Rivka’s place.  The tension rises for a final time here as the reader realizes Hannah/Chaya is walking to her death.  The reader then wonders what will happen to the modern-day Hannah.

Why doesn't Captain Fleery and the other believers worry about the state of the city of Ember?

In Chapter 7, Lina is anxious to decipher the contents of the ancient document. She thinks that the parchment contains writing that originated from the Builders of Ember. However, Lina needs help to figure out what the original writing means, as her baby sister, Poppy, chewed on the paper, and pieces of the document are missing.

When she confides in Captain Fleery, the captain is skeptical about the value of the document. She says that...

In Chapter 7, Lina is anxious to decipher the contents of the ancient document. She thinks that the parchment contains writing that originated from the Builders of Ember. However, Lina needs help to figure out what the original writing means, as her baby sister, Poppy, chewed on the paper, and pieces of the document are missing.

When she confides in Captain Fleery, the captain is skeptical about the value of the document. She says that it could be a very old recipe or even someone's old homework assignment. Captain Fleery advises Lina not to worry about the contents of the paper, as help is coming. She tells Lina that the Builders who built Ember will return to save the city. Currently, the city is in great danger: supplies are low, the corruption in the ranks of the leadership has reached troubling levels, and the lights seem to be failing. While Lina thinks that the document may contain some much needed help for the beleaguered city of Ember, Captain Fleery is less convinced.

She admits that her faith in the return of the Builders originates from a dream she has had; taking Lina into her confidence, Captain Fleery confesses that the rest of the Believers have also had this dream, and they are sure that it will come true. She invites Lina to a Believers meeting, but Lina is non-committal. She has no interest in waiting around for the Builders to show up; instead, she feels that she has to be a little more proactive in looking for a solution for Ember's future.

What were the negative effects of industrial expansionism during the Gilded age?

During the Gilded age there was rapid economic growth, this growth created vast amounts of wealth. There were new products and technologies that led to the improvement in the quality of life of the middle class. However this new prosperity was not shared by everyone, the industrial workers and farmers worked in dangerous conditions for long hours with very little pay. The politicians during the Gilded Age were ineffective and corrupt. The majority of Americans...

During the Gilded age there was rapid economic growth, this growth created vast amounts of wealth. There were new products and technologies that led to the improvement in the quality of life of the middle class. However this new prosperity was not shared by everyone, the industrial workers and farmers worked in dangerous conditions for long hours with very little pay. The politicians during the Gilded Age were ineffective and corrupt. The majority of Americans during this time desired social and political reforms, however there were huge disagreements about what type of reform was needed. The unskilled workers of the day worked for long hours in dangerous conditions. These workers got paid very little and did not share the prosperity of the Gilded age. Many of these workers lived in slums. While the industrial giants made huge contributions to the development of the American economy the vast majority of Americans did not benefit from these changes. The economy allowed for few to gain large fortunes but the unskilled laborers had to work 60 hours a week for 10 cents an hour. Over a million people lived in the cramped New York dumbbell tenements which were overcrowded, fire traps. In Chicago, the slums were around three times as packed as those in New York. The living conditions in these settlements were horrible, city governments were not able to build sewage or water facilities fast enough for the growing populations. Diseases such as cholera, TB, consumption, and typhoid became common in these settlements. In cities like New Orléans the poor walked in their own sewage.

The period of the Gilded Age was one of horrible labor violence where the industrialist and workers fought for control in the workplace. This resulted in the workers forming the first labor unions. The employers were against such unions and tried to stop them for forming which led to conflicts. The key events that came out of this was the Railway Strike of 1877, Haymarket Riot of 1886, Homestead Strike of 1892, and the Pullman Strike of 1893. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 started a time of serious conflicts in the industrial industry. The strike ended when federal troops attacked the protesting workers. After 1877 the laborers started to form large unions. In 1892 there was a strike at the Carnegie Homestead Steel plant that was outside of Pittsburgh. There was fighting between armed security and workers which left 12 men dead. The steel industry stayed free of unions until the 1930s. Pullman ran a railroad car factory in Chicago and built a city for his workers to live in but the rent in this city was high and workers were generally unhappy. The Pullman Strike started after wages for the factory workers were reduced but rent for living in the town was not. Workers who went on strike received support from the national American Railways Union. The strike however ended up being a failure due to intervention by government troops. The Industrialists were convinced by the violent strikes that labor conflict was an inevitability. So most of the big industrialists desired to stop unions from forming instead of trying to reach a compromise. The rapid industrialization of the American workplace changed the role that work played in people's lives. The workers were not just unhappy due to the pay, hours and conditions but they also loss the status and satisfaction that work had previously given them. The introduction of machinery plus the subdivision of the manufacturing process led to workers only understanding the one tiny part that they played in the process. The laborers also lost the opportunity for advancement resulting in them being demoralized. The manufacturing process gave the workers no transportable skills, they often had no real skills at all. In fact the process was subdivided so much that a child was capable of doing the work. It wasn’t until the 1920s that industrialists decided to improve productivity and morale by improving factory conditions.

What does Atticus tell Scout about Miss Caroline in To Kill a Mockingbird?

Atticus tells Scout that she needs to look at things from Miss Caroline’s point of view.

Scout is very excited about starting first grade.  For years she has been watching Jem go to school while she has to stay home and miss all of the fun.  However, school is not at all what Scout expected.  She gets in trouble almost immediately for being able to read.

[As] I read the alphabet a faint line appeared between her eyebrows, and after making me read most of My First Reader and the stock-market quotations from The Mobile Register aloud, she discovered that I was literate and looked at me with more than faint distaste. (Ch. 2)

This is very disturbing to Scout.  She loves reading as much as she loves breathing, and although Miss Caroline tells her that her father has taught her incorrectly, he actually didn’t really teach her.  She learned to love reading because he loved reading.  She followed along with him as he read, whatever he happened to read, and soon she could read it too.

When Scout complains to Atticus that night about her unfair teacher, he tells her that she needs to learn to see things from Miss Caroline’s point of view.  Miss Caroline learned as much on the first day of school as Scout did.

She had learned not to hand something to a Cunningham, for one thing, but if Walter and I had put ourselves in her shoes we’d have seen it was an honest mistake on her part. We could not expect her to learn all Maycomb’s ways in one day, and we could not hold her responsible when she knew no better. (Ch. 3)

Miss Caroline is not from Maycomb, which made most of the children suspicious of her.  She also is a brand new teacher, and very young.  Atticus knows that there will be a bit of a learning curve for the teacher as well as for her students.  They will need to get used to her educational strategies, and she will have to get used to their Maycomb methods.

Scout is actually learning an important lesson in empathy.  She is young enough to still be figuring out the world.  Atticus is trying to help her understand that she needs to try to see another person's perspective on things before judging the person.  Throughout the book, Scout will continue to work on this lesson as she grows up.

In the book Flight, written by Sherman Alexie, why does Sherman Alexie put the narrator, Zits, into Gus' body? Why did he not choose another body ?

It is easy to demonize people who have harmed us directly or indirectly. With regard to the book Flight,it could have been easy for Sherman Alexie to demonize the "Indian Tracker" Gus, rather than portray him as a feeling person. If Zits had been inside another body in that scene, particularly the body of another First Nations person, it could have been easy to just take the character of Gus as a hateful person...

It is easy to demonize people who have harmed us directly or indirectly. With regard to the book Flight, it could have been easy for Sherman Alexie to demonize the "Indian Tracker" Gus, rather than portray him as a feeling person. If Zits had been inside another body in that scene, particularly the body of another First Nations person, it could have been easy to just take the character of Gus as a hateful person with no conscience. I think that Alexie chose to put Zits into Gus' body to show that acts of hate and war can't just be reduced down to mindless action in order to make it easier to understand.

A running theme in the book was also to observe and possibly re-write history and Zits' own future. By having Zits control Gus' action, Alexie both demonstrated conscience on the part of Gus, who joined the military because he wanted to help people. War and conquest are not summarized in one broad stroke of action, and have always involved many small acts which add up to the big picture. Gus' kindness in helping save Bow Boy and Small Saint shows these subversive actions which are often left out of the telling of history.

Zits learns throughout the book that his actions affect not just those immediately around him, but their friends and families and so on.