How did the Industrial Revolution play a part in A Christmas Carol?

The Industrial Revolution acts as a back-drop for the story and helps to craft some of the characters that Scrooge has financial power to help or hurt.

Our own study guide says:

In the mid-nineteenth century, London was a crowded, dirty place, a fact that no one did more to publicize than Dickens himself. Industries were not regulated, and widespread pollution and exploitation of the work force resulted. Laborers, many of them children, were...

The Industrial Revolution acts as a back-drop for the story and helps to craft some of the characters that Scrooge has financial power to help or hurt.

Our own study guide says:

In the mid-nineteenth century, London was a crowded, dirty place, a fact that no one did more to publicize than Dickens himself. Industries were not regulated, and widespread pollution and exploitation of the work force resulted. Laborers, many of them children, were required to work fourteen-hour days in order to help their families pay bills; if a family was unable to make ends meet, they might end up in Debtor's Prison—as Dickens' family did when he was twelve. (A Christmas Carol Analysis)

In Stave One we see characters who are responding directly to the circumstances that are described above. There are two men from a charity that ask Scrooge for donations and he replies by asking them, "are there no prisons?" referring to the debtors' prisons people went to when they could not pay their bills. He feels people who are poor are also "idle," and this is simply not the case. In this stave we also meet Bob Cratchit who, although he is not laboring away in a factory somewhere, does work long hours for Mr. Scrooge, in a very cold office he is not allowed to heat, where he is underpaid and made to feel guilty for asking for time off for Christmas. This employer/employee relationship represents the unfair working conditions of many people during the Industrial Revolution, where they had to work a lot in order to barely make ends meet or not meet at all. They often had employers who did not care and simply viewed them as another number, just as Scrooge views everyone he sees. 

Ultimately, Scrooge represents the cold, inhuman wealth of the Industrial Revolution, and those around him represent the victims of the industrial age. The Industrial Revolution was full of haves and have-nots, and Scrooge has the ability to make life easier for many, but at the beginning of the story he chooses not to do so because he values money over relationships.

What information does "the beggar" receive and give about the suitors and Odysseus?

When Odysseus returns to Ithaca, disguised as a beggar, he learns a great deal about the suitors by observing their behavior, especially their behavior toward him.  According to the rules of Greek hospitality, the suitors should be willing to share their food and drink generously, especially because it isn't even their own resources that they'd be sharing -- the goods actually belong to Odysseus and his family!  This is all the more reason they shouldn't...

When Odysseus returns to Ithaca, disguised as a beggar, he learns a great deal about the suitors by observing their behavior, especially their behavior toward him.  According to the rules of Greek hospitality, the suitors should be willing to share their food and drink generously, especially because it isn't even their own resources that they'd be sharing -- the goods actually belong to Odysseus and his family!  This is all the more reason they shouldn't be stingy.  However, Antinous calls him a "pest" and says that he is spoiling their feast before actually throwing a stool at him. The suitors also force him to fight another local beggar, Irus, and even a slave-maid of Penelope mocks him and treats him poorly.  He learns that these are really terrible, awful people who deserve no pity from him.

However, when Penelope hears that a poor man was struck in her home, she feels badly and asks for him to be brought to her so that she can ask him if he has any news of Odysseus.  When they meet that night, her descriptions of how she's been trying to delay the suitors and questions about Odysseus convince him of her continued loyalty and love.  Odysseus convinces her that he knows her husband and that he is on his way home and will be there soon with a great deal of treasure that he has collected in his travels.

How does the Ceremony of Twelve start and why is number Nineteen skipped in the assignments in The Giver?

The Ceremony of Twelve starts with a description of the class, and number Nineteen is skipped because Jonas has a special assignment.

The Ceremony of Twelve is the most important ceremony, and the last one.  After twelve, no one counts ages any more.  The children are well on their way to training to be adults.  The ceremony this year is different because Jonas’s number is skipped.  This causes him and the others discomfort, because they do not realize he has been chosen Receiver of Memory.

Jonas’s Ceremony of Twelve begins in an ordinary way.  The Chief Elder starts off by describing Jonas’s class of twelve-year-olds.

The speech was much the same each year: recollection of the time of childhood and the period of preparation, the coming responsibilities of adult life, the profound importance of Assignment, the seriousness of training to come. (Ch. 7)

After this introduction, the Chief Elder moves on to describing each child in number order.  The child’s personality is described, along with some brief history, and then the assignment is announced.  All proceeds normally until the elder moves from number Eighteen to number Twenty.

Jonas first assumes that he has done something wrong.  A child who does not complete volunteer hours is not given an assignment.  Jonas feels embarrassed and ashamed, and can barely concentrate for the rest of the ceremony as he is trying to decide what he did.

After all of the children other than Jonas have been given assignments, the Chief Elder finally explains what happened.  She apologizes for causing everyone confusion and apprehension, then tells them why Jonas was skipped.

"Jonas has not been assigned," she informed the crowd, and his heart sank.

Then she went on. "Jonas has been selected." (Ch. 8)

In a ceremony celebrating differences, the community acknowledges that Jonas is very different.  Standing out is never appreciated in the community, but Jonas has been given a special assignment.  As the Receiver of Memory, his position is one of great importance to the community.  It is an honor and very rare.

Jonas has no idea what he is getting into when he is chosen Receiver of Memory.  This position means that he will hold all of the community’s collective memories for generations back.  It will keep him apart from the others as he becomes one of the only people in the community to really understand what is going on there.

Why the drama?  Why skip Jonas at all?  The answer is that the community clearly wants to have everyone's complete attention for Jonas's announcement.  The position of Receiver of Memory is so important that they want to call attention to it, and to him.  It is an unusual move for a community dedicated to Sameness.  Jonas was definitely not expecting it.

How are books symbolized in Third Day?

In The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco creates parallels between the sexual relationship of men and women, minor chuchmen and wealth, and monks and books. Books are seen as the equivalent of adulterous or avaricious temptations, drawing monks in particular from their proper duties and attentions.

This is particularly important because in this section of the book young Adso has his seduction of a nameless kitchen maid, which is his first sexual encounter....

In The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco creates parallels between the sexual relationship of men and women, minor chuchmen and wealth, and monks and books. Books are seen as the equivalent of adulterous or avaricious temptations, drawing monks in particular from their proper duties and attentions.

This is particularly important because in this section of the book young Adso has his seduction of a nameless kitchen maid, which is his first sexual encounter. As both a young man and an older man looking back, the girl represents sin and error, but also God-given pleasure and delight. Because of the parallel created at the beginning of the "day," the reader can see Adso's sexual encounter as a dramatization of the temptations being played out over the search for the manuscript, and the desire for books and manuscripts throughout the entire novel.

This parallel is critical, and part of a much larger discussion throughout The Name of the Rose of books as carriers of both blessings and sins, heresies and sacred knowledge, mystery and revelation. Adso's complicated feelings about a single sexual encounter with a woman whose name he never even knows serves as a simple model of the more abstract passions played out over the course of the novel in relationship to the missing Aristotle manuscript and the nature of sin and heresy.

Did the US intervene in any events leading up to their involvement in WW2? (For example, in 1933 when Germany rearms, in 1935 when Italy attack...

The United States had very little involvement in dealing with the events leading to the start of World War II. The United States was dealing with the Great Depression. This depression was the worst economic crisis we had faced in our history. Dealing with the Great Depression was the main focus of our leaders and the American people.

The United States wanted to stay out of world affairs in the 1930s. People were upset about...

The United States had very little involvement in dealing with the events leading to the start of World War II. The United States was dealing with the Great Depression. This depression was the worst economic crisis we had faced in our history. Dealing with the Great Depression was the main focus of our leaders and the American people.

The United States wanted to stay out of world affairs in the 1930s. People were upset about the findings of the Nye Committee that suggested that we entered World War I to help our businesses financially. People were concerned that only Finland repaid its debts to us from World War I. Congress passed several neutrality laws in the 1930s that prevented us from selling weapons to countries at war. One of these laws required a "cash and carry" policy if we sold non-military supplies to countries at war. These countries would have to pay cash for the supplies they bought and transport them on their own ships.

President Roosevelt was concerned about these aggressive actions and the formation of the Axis Power Alliance. When Japan invaded China in 1937, President Roosevelt gave a speech that warned the country about a growing danger if nothing was done about these aggressive actions. He believed these aggressor nations needed to be isolated. However, most Americans remained unconcerned about these events.

Thus, when Germany moved its military into the Rhineland and invaded Austria, nothing was done about these events. When Italy invaded Ethiopia, there was no action against Italy. When Japan invaded China, President Roosevelt gave a speech. There were no real actions taken by the United States to deal with these aggressive actions in Europe and Asia prior to the start of World War II.

In The Giver by Lois Lowry, does Jonas feel bad about lying for the first time (when he lies to his parents)? Also, does he experience anything...

Jonas does not feel bad about lying to his parents, because he realizes that they cannot understand the concept of love.

Jonas is horrified when he receives his instructions and one of the rules says that he can lie.  Lying is expressly forbidden in his community, as far as he knows.

He had been trained since earliest childhood, since his earliest learning of language, never to lie. It was an integral part of the learning...

Jonas does not feel bad about lying to his parents, because he realizes that they cannot understand the concept of love.

Jonas is horrified when he receives his instructions and one of the rules says that he can lie.  Lying is expressly forbidden in his community, as far as he knows.

He had been trained since earliest childhood, since his earliest learning of language, never to lie. It was an integral part of the learning of precise speech. (Ch. 9)

Jonas wonders if anyone else had the same rule, and people have been lying to him all along.  He ponders the fact that if he were to ask someone if he or she was lying, he wouldn’t know if the person was telling the truth.  He can't imagine a situation where he would be the one lying. 

Jonas lies for the first time when he asks his parents whether they love him or not.  Love is not a construct that exists in the community, but Jonas learns about it through the memories.  It seems wonderful to him, and he misses the closeness that he experiences in the memories.  When he asks his parents if they love him, he does not get the result  he expected.  His father is amused, and chides him about precision of language.

"Your father means that you used a very generalized word, so meaningless that it's become almost obsolete," his mother explained carefully. (Ch. 16)

Jonas’s parents ask him if he understands, and he tells them that he does.  He has never lied to his parents before, but he doesn't feel bad about it.  He lied because they have no understanding of love, so they could never know how he feels.    Understanding that his parents do not love him, he tells Gabe that the world could be different.  Love is possible, in a community that allows it.

Jonas’s realization that love is a better way of life is an important one.  In lying to his parents, he separated himself from them.  This is the point where Jonas ceased to be a member of his community.  For him, the community is broken.  Its way of life is a tragedy.  Jonas seeks a connection with others.  This is why he told Gabe about the concept of love.

Identify a quote from A Streetcar Named Desire that shows Stanley's resentment of Blanche.

In A Streetcar Named Desire, Stanley's resentment of Blanche is a significant part of his character.

Blanche views Stanley in a negative light.  She says to Stella that he is "not the type to go for jasmine perfume," and communicates that Stanley is of a lower or almost "bestial" element.  Blanche feels that Stanley is not worthy of being associated with the Du Bois name.

Over the course of the drama, Stanley understands what Blanche...

In A Streetcar Named Desire, Stanley's resentment of Blanche is a significant part of his character.

Blanche views Stanley in a negative light.  She says to Stella that he is "not the type to go for jasmine perfume," and communicates that Stanley is of a lower or almost "bestial" element.  Blanche feels that Stanley is not worthy of being associated with the Du Bois name.

Over the course of the drama, Stanley understands what Blanche is trying to do.  In response to her constant criticism of his ethnicity by calling him a "Polack," he speaks with scorn to Blanche:  "I am not a Polack. People from Poland are Poles, not Polacks. But what I am is a one hundred percent American, born and raised in the greatest country on earth and proud as hell of it, so don’t ever call me a Polack." Stanley does not like the way that Blanche refers to him and the inferiority with which she views him.  He realizes that Blanche is using his ethnic background as a way to discredit and insult him. This resentment is echoed when Stanley argues that he is an "American."  When he rebukes her, Stanley's resentment towards Blanche is clearly displayed.