Discuss the transformations of characters throughout The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

I think that most of these changes are going to be seen in
Bruno.  It is not as though he evolves from bad to good.  Rather, he changes in
appropriating and understanding more of his world.  Bruno starts out with an intense
dislike towards "Out- With" because it is not his home with his friends.  However, he
ends up making his own sense of home there and this becomes solidified through his
friendship with Shmuel.  His transformation includes being able to doubt some of the
things that have been taught to him, such as German superiority lessons on the part of
Herr Liszt, and the idea that his world is the only one.  His ability to make the
ultimate sacrifice in the name of friendship despite his fear and dislike of life on the
other side of the fence is an excellent indicator of this change.  I believe that other
changes can be seen in the mother, who no longer trusts her husband and his career plans
with unquestioned loyalty.  Gretel has changed, as well.  At the end of the novel, she
is beside herself with grief and sadness at the disappearance of her brother.  The
father, himself, undergoes change when he reconstructs what happens at the end of the
novel.  He has little regard for what happens to him as he recognizes that his own dream
and pursuit of Nazism cost him his son as well as many others.  In this light, the
transformations of the characters come about, but with a great sense of cost attached to
such change.

In the Great Gatsby, why does Fitzgerald tell the story of James Gatz?

The James Gatz story is important for at least two
reasons. First, readers are trying to keep track of truth and lies in this story, and
the James Gatz story is a guaranteed truth as it comes from our author, not a biased
character.

Second, this story of his background gives merit
to the idea that Gatsby is in pursuit of finding his identity. A name change suggests a
complete and total change of a person, and we can see that as the James Gatz character
was not too successful, while the Jay Gatsby character is extremely successful. At one
point, Nick narrates,

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"It was James Gatz who had been loafing along
the beach that afternoon in a torn green jersey and a pair of canvas pants, but it was
already Jay Gatsby who borrowed a rowboat, pulled out to the Tulomee,
and informed Cody that a wind might catch him and break him up in half an
hour."

James Gatz went from a
17-year-old who lacked confidence to a 17-year-old entrapaneur taking a risk to initiate
conversation with an obvious wealthy man who had no concept of a potential upcoming
gale.

Later Nick notices about the emerging
Gatsby:

"But
his heart was in a constant, turbulent riot. The most grotesque and fantastic conceits
haunted him in his bed at
night."

The new Gatsby
character was taken with his imagination and believed in a glorious and fantastic
possible future.

This entire section is important because
Gatsby is an everyman in many ways. All mankind dreams about what more could come in
their lives. The restless discontent of Americans with the status quo is ever present.
This story of James Gatz demonstrates that in Gatsby's life, there was a defining moment
which forever changed him from the sweet lakeside boy to the ambitious American
dreamer.

How does Night by Elie Wiesel view the concept of parent-child relationships?

I think that this is one of the most profound elements out
of Wiesel's work.  One of the strongest and most base of claims in the work is how the
experience of the Holocaust inverted all of reality.  In this inversion, Wiesel places
the parent/ child relationship.  It might be comforting to think that the connection
between parent and child is something that can remain intact in the Holocaust. Yet,
Wiesel does not believe in any such notion.  His vision of what was present during the
Holocaust is one where the inversion of the parent/ child connection is one of the most
haunting of elements.

Eliezer and his father are shown to
be together, for the most part.  There is some level of adolescent distance featured
when Eliezer wishes to study the element of Jewish mysticism and Shlomo is more
concerned with the day to day events of the community and his business.  Throughout the
harrowing ordeal, Wiesel shows how the dehumanization of the Nazi victims end up
infecting them to the point where they replicate the same patterns of abuse that are
being perpetrated unto them.  This is seen at several points.  When Madame Schachter's
child turns from his mother's beating, not speaking out, but rather vicariously living
through the mob, it is a reminder of how the inversion of values in the Holocaust
impacts all human connection.  At the same time, when Eliezer and his father witness a
father stealing bread for his child and the beating of father at the hands of the child
for food, it is another element of inversion.  Children abandoning parents during times
of crises are reflective moments of how the parent/ child bond is not immune to the
dehumanization that is such a part of the Holocaust narrative.  Certainly, this is seen
in Eliezer, himself, where a base instinct and drive to survive cuts off the ability to
hear his father's cries.  When Shlomo cries for water, yearns for someone to hear him,
and Eliezer remains silent, it is the ultimate telling point as to how the true horror
of the Holocaust was the severance of bonds between human beings, something that reared
itself in the relationship between children and their parents.  When Eliezer cannot
recognize the vision staring back at him at the end of the narrative, it might be a
telling sign of how estranged children can no longer acknowledge or understand their
connection to parents in such a time period.

Please summarize Church Going by Philip Larkin.

In "Church Going" by Philip Larkin, a narrator is visiting
an open but empty small country church. It is obviously an Aglican church somewhere in
rural England. The narrator reveals that he is in the habit of doing this but is
somewhat bewildered as to his own motives, saying:

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Yet stop I did: in fact I often do,
And
always end much at a loss like this,
Wondering what to look for
…

As he spends longer in the
church, he wonders if the church is meaningful in a secular age, or whether the church
will stop being used and end up only visited by people like himself, not worshippers but
somehow still with an odd sense of reverence. The longer he spends in the church, the
more he comes to appreciate its moral and spiritual seriousness, and even undergoes an
understated epiphany, realizing that the church is not "obsolete", but even for him, as
it has been for generations of worshippers, a place it "was proper to grow wise
in."

In the short story "Wild Horses" by Rick Bass, how does Karen get over her grief of the loss of her fiance?

Everyone hears stories about a person’s fiancé dying the
day before the wedding.  No one believes that it will happen to her.  In “Wild Horses,”
by Rick Bass, Karen really experiences this terrible loss.  Her grief is palpable with
her anger directed toward Henry’s [her dead fiancé] best friend who saw him
die. 

After a bachelor party, Henry and his friends go out
to a cliff above a lake.  Henry dives off the cliff, and he is  never seen or heard from
again. His body was never discovered. 

The narration is
third person point of view with a limited omniscient narrator. The story takes place in
the northwest near to tree logging.  

The theme of the
story pertains to the struggle to survive the deep grief and guilt that the people who
are left behind when someone dies.  Every person handles his/her pain in different ways.
Inferentially, the two main characters learn that it is best to share the sorrow with
someone else. 

Karen was twenty-six and already has been
engaged twice and married once. Her husband had run away with another woman.  She really
loved Henry, but now he was gone. Sydney, Henry’s best friend, tries to help Karen.  He
does feel that he should have done something to save Henry even though he and the other
friends dove in and searched everywhere to try to find
him.

“I’m
sorry,” he called out.  “But I can’t bring him back!” He waited for her to answer, but
could only hear her
sobs. 

Sydney, a horse
breaker and trainer, also grieves for his best friend.  He carries his guilt with him
wherever he goes; but particularly, he feels it the most when he is with Karen.  Sydney
knows that he is falling in love with Karen, who is not ready to consider any kind of
relationship.

To get her mind off her troubles, Karen works
with a veterinarian.  She and the vet travel around the area taking care of large
animals.  Recently, they went to a logging camp where an old mule had hurt his knee. 
The mule pulled the logs up the slope.  The doctor drained his horribly swelled knee and
gave him some pain pills.  Eventually, Karen rescues the mule by buying a Clydesdale and
trading the horse for the old mule.     

Sydney breaks his
bones regularly in his job.  Within six months, he broke his leg twice.  As he spends
more time with Karen, Sydney knows that he wants Karen in his life.  Many times at the
end of the day, Karen would take her shower, come out and Sydney would rub her neck and
brow. She would fall asleep, and he would wake her up and help her to
bed. 

As time goes by, Karen feels less anger toward Sydney
although she seems to be settling into her grief. It really was not Sydney’s fault; yet,
Karen is comfortable with the fact that Sydney should have stopped Henry or saved
him.

Eventually, Karen relents and reaches out and squeezes
his hand. Finally, Karen was letting go and giving in to her feelings that she had for
Sydney. She even calls him one night just to say “hello” and
“goodnight.”

In the end, Sydney tells Karen how much he
misses Henry.  She says that she knows and that she will help him. The tables have
turned.  She holds his hand as they sit on the porch.

In Kizer's "Night Sounds," what situation and impressions are brought about by these words in the first stanza: "moonlight," "weeping,"...

Generally, the first paragraph of a short story or novel
can set the mood immediately, and with a poem (and often its title) I find the same
thing happens.

In Carolyn Kizer's melancholy "Night
Sounds," the words from the first stanza (moonlight, weeping, nightmares, tinged,
terror, and nostalgia) set the mood of the poem.

There is
sadness or fear associated with each word as follows: "nightmares" and "terror" speak to
the fear that often comes in the middle of the night. And while this poem may come from
the voice of a woman (a woman would be thought to generally ask her lover to "hold me"),
I still get a strong sense that there is something of a child within her, looking for
comfort during the late evening hours.

Two other words,
"weeping" and "nostalgia," offer up emotions of sadness. These things are always worse
at night. However, the final two words provide a sense of hope or survival. Moonlight is
a beacon when the night with its bad dreams and loneliness can make the wee hours of the
morning passable. The word "tinge" also offers some hope in that it means that something
is only slightly "colored" or "affected" by something else, and in this case if these
elements of fear or loneliness only tinge the night, we would expect that the speaker
will make it through the long night.

In summary, the words
listed set the mood: we (as readers) can expect that there will be some fear, loneliness
and sadness in the poem, but perhaps hope as well.

In The Comedian, it seems to be implied that the baby is born dumb. Nowhere in the summary is this mentioned as even a possibility. Is this...

One can always think that an implication can equate a
possibility. The role of the unborn baby in The Comedian is
inevitably the symbol which envelops Corinne's life.

Based
upon the fact that L'Heureux typically centers his stories around ordinary events which,
in the end, become something surrounded by extraordinary
circumstances.

The story follows Corinne's life after she
finds out that she is pregnant. Pressured by her husband to abort the baby, Corinne,
instead, embraces the unborn child. The child beings to sing to her from the womb. It is
only when Corinne admits that the singing is her imagination that the child becomes
silent.

When charged with the possibility that the child
may be deformed, Corinne must decide to keep or abort the child. At one point, Corinne
decides to abort her baby. Falling into a downward spiral, Corinne realizes that she
cannot go through with the abortion. She shouts aloud that she wants to keep her child.
This moment changes Corinne's life forever.

The importance
of the unborn child is somewhat hidden in regards to the question: Is a baby born dumb?
The implication regarding the child actually points in a very different
direction.

One could justify that the baby is, indeed, very
smart. The unborn child leads Corinne through life with its song. It is only when she
denies the singing that the child becomes quiet.

After
renouncing her previous statement, and deciding to keep the child, the baby takes
control of her life again. Without the child, Corinne cannot be
happy.

Therefore, disregarding scientific thought, one
could say that the text actually proves that a child is not born dumb. Corinne's child
proves that it has wisdom far beyond its age.

Please explicate "The Secret Room" by Alain Robbe-Grillet.

Art is something that cannot be clearly defined to mean
only one thing. Once "art" leaves its "creator," the creation takes on a life of its own
becoming as unique as each person that interacts with it. This is
my perception of what the story
means.

"The Secret Room" was published by Alain
Robbe-Grillet in 1962. The story seemingly presents a murder mystery; the villain is a
dark-caped man; the naked woman—the "sacrificial victim"—is chained, dead. The woman has
been shackled in a spread-eagle position, making sex with her not only possible but
guaranteed—she would have been unable to resist. She is lying on a black velvet cover,
thrown over purple pillows. The black cover is symbolic of
death.

Purple has been symbolic of many things over the
years: the Greeks saw purple not as a color but as...

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...a sheen or iridescence, a mixture of light or
dark on the surface.

This
definition would allow that the purple might symbolize hidden depths or perhaps hidden
meaning. Homer uses it to also describe blood. Shakespeare uses "purple" to refer to
"gore." For example, in Richard II, Act Three, scene three, he
writes:

...the
purple testament of bleeding
war.

On a more
literal level, purple dye was so expensive that only "kings,
emperors and aristocrats" could afford it.

In that the body
lies on oriental rugs in plush surroundings suggests that this is not a place of title="penury" href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/penury">penury
but opulence and wealth. The murderer's clothing hints that he is not a common criminal.
The room without visible boundaries symbolizes a situation that is widespread (not a
singular event):

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...this is not the whole room, whose
considerable space must in reality extend all around...in every direction, perhaps
toward other sofas, thick carpets, piles of cushions and fabrics, other tortured
bodies...

The inability to
pinpoint a light-source might indicate an event that is never
displayed in the light of day, inferring this is hidden from the public eye. The
presence of an incense burner may refer to the church. The woman's "milkwhite" body
conveys a sense of purity or innocence. The man is
described:

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...a black silhouette...fleeing, a man wrapped
in a long, floating cape, ascending the last steps without turning around, his deed
accomplished.

The villain is
"fleeing," and "his deed is accomplished." Later his face is
described:

The
man’s features are impassive, but tense, as if in expectation—or perhaps
fear...

Based on these
details, the dead woman may be symbolic of the loss of virginity: the death of
innocence. The chains could imply marriage, and the incense, the church's blessing
(which marriage would afford). The wound is on the woman's left breast, where her heart
would be, suggesting that it was broken when the illusion of
courtship and/or "feigned" love were destroyed with the "right of assault" that belongs
to a man by virtue of marriage vows.

Mine
is not a blanket statement regarding matrimony at all, but the idea
of a woman sold into marriage with a lie. Specifically, the
presence of wealth brings to mind the buying and selling of daughters/women based upon
financial arrangements or the merging of upper echelons of
society.

The man goes unmolested—"deed accomplished;" this
might point to incidents when a woman is not joined in marriage by love, but with deceit
and malice of intent—with social acceptance, as Robbe-Grillet might see
it.

Additional
Source:

Ferber, Michael. A
Dictionary of Literary Symbols. New York: Cambridge University Press,
1999.

Please explain this quote from Macbeth:We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it.(15) She'll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice Remains...

Macbeth is speaking here in Act III, scene IV regarding
the report he received from the murderers he hired to kill Banquo and Fleance.  The
murderers report that Banquo is "safe"--safely dead in the ditch with many gashes. 
However, Fleance has escaped.  To this, Macbeth responds, "We have scotch'd the snake,
not killed it.  She'll close and be herself, whilst our porr malice remains in danger of
her former tooth."  He means they have not taken care of the situation.  Banquo is only
part of the problem.  His issue will be Kings, so Fleance still has that opportunity
and Macbeth is not safe on the throne.  Fleance, while only a boy, will grow up and
become the full-grown snake that will take Macbeth and all his evil plans to get to the
throne out, once and for good.  The snake (the threat against Macbeth's place on the
throne--Banquo and Fleance) is only wounded, but will return to strength and her "former
tooth".

In the rest of the quote, Macbeth references "both
worlds."  This could be the worlds of good and evil (which is also symbolized as England
and Scotland in this play), the worlds of the living and the dead, or some other
interpretation.  Both worlds suffer--Macbeth is not at ease or comfortable in his new
position as he thought he would be.  He and his wife have done awful things to get
there, and they are suspected of the deeds.  Even Lady Macbeth, the strong and so sure
of herself woman, is having trouble adjusting.  Therefore, they "eat their meals in fear
and are troubled nightly by horrible nightmares". 

Macbeth
goes on to say that it is better to be dead than to be mentally tormented as he is with
all the guilt and the memories of the evil he has committed to become King.  He has
continued killing (not just Duncan, but also the guards, Banquo, an attempt on Fleance,
and later, McDuff's family) in order to gain his "peace"--to secure his throne so he
wouldn't have the prophecy and other threats against his position as King--and so he has
sent these people to their "peace" where they no longer have any worries at
all. 

I hope this helps clarify some things for you.  Enjoy
your journey!  Macbeth is one of my all-time favorite Shakespeare plays.  Good
Luck!