Comment on the imagery used in the poem "Precious Words" by Emily Dickinson. Cite examples and identify the type of imagery. To which sense does...

Imagery is a literary device which appeals to one (or all)
of the five senses (sight, sound, taste, touch, smell). Authors use imagery to appeal to
the senses of a reader so that they can experience a deeper connection with the
text.

In Emily Dickinson's poem, XXI from Part One of
"Life", "He ate and drank the precious words" imagery is used to appeal to a reader's
sight.

The poem depicts a man sumbolically drunk off of
words he has read in a book. The book has not only "intoxicated" him, it has allowed him
to forget the problems in his life as well.

The imagery of
the poem details an image of a man, drunk and dancing. This is a visual image that the
reader can create in their own mind.

What ironies do you see in the title of the play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Willaims?

Certainly, authors select titles for their works with both
the explicit and the implicit meanings in mind.  Tenessee Williams's play, The
Glass Menagerie has a title replete with meanings, some of which establish
incongruities between what seems to be and what is real, or
ironies. 

• On the surface, of course, the title
  is that of the collection of little glass wild animals kept by Laura as one of her forms
  of escape from the realities that threaten her; that is, as a form of illusion.  The
  implicit meaning of the title is that the members of the family, Laura, Tom, and Amanda,
  are themselves enclosed in the glass of illusion, an illusion that disguises the truth.
  Their enclosure is self-imposed, however.  Laura, for instance, shies away from being
  with the public; she cannot complete her course at the Rubicund Business School and
  retreats to the zoo and home. Tom, too, is unable to face reality; he dreams of writing
  and escapes reality by going to the movies. Amanda, the mother, lives for her children,
  but with her constant berating of Tom especially, she drives her son away.  Thus, for
  the characters of the play, Laura's and Tom's  truths of becoming
  something are disguised as illusions as are Amanda's memories of her past and all her
  gentleman callers. It is, therefore, ironic that the animals are held captive in
  glass when the family's enclosure of illusion is
  self-imposed.


• And, although Tom feels that he strikes out
  on his own, he and Laura and Amanda, while enclosed in their illusions, are not a
  "menagerie"; instead, they are very much alike. Tom, also, proves that he is much like
  his father, as well, when he abandons his family. 


• When
  he leaves the group and Tom looks through the screen of the stage directions, he is
  ironically yet part of the family--unlike the unicorn who has "broken" free--as he
  muses,

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I pass the lighted window of a shop where perfume
is sold. The window is filled with pieces of colored glass, tiny transparent bottles in
delicate colors, like bits of a shattered
rainbow.

• While the
  glass unicorn has escaped physically, Tom has also, but, ironically, he cannot escape
  psychologically.

.

What is one major event from the plot of The Devil's Arithmetic?

I would have to say that the one of the most important
events from the plot is near the end of the novel when the guard shows up looking for
three more Jews to take to the ovens. Rivka is one of the chosen and Chaya (Hannah)
decides to take her place. What prompts her is that she has "the
memories of Lublin and the shtetl and the camp itself ... she lived, had lived, would
live in the future -- she or someone with whom she shared memories. But Rivka only knew
now." Hannah's last words to Rivka are, "Run for your future. Run. Run. Run. And
remember." Hannah bravely walks towards the doors of the oven telling a story to help
calm those she is with -- a very brave last act.

The reason
this is important is because it is what ultimately ties the two story lines together.
Modern-day Hannah is a typical American teenager who is tired of the old stories told by
her older Jewish relatives. She doesn't fully appreciate what suffering and horrors they
endured to survive the concentration camps. Rivka, who was saved by Chaya, is actually
Hannah's Aunt Eva and Hannah's Jewish name is Chaya as she was named in memory of the
brave friend who sacrificed herself for Rivka. Hannah, with her time travel experience
now knows, remembers, and appreciates the events of the past and the importance of
remembering so that it could never happen again.

How does Jared Diamond restate/reword Yali's question in Guns, Germs and Steel?

Well, if we look at the book Yali's question is actually
restated in a number of different ways as the book progresses, each of which of course
allows Diamond to cast new light on world history and the way that certain conditions
favoured certain peoples over others. However, perhaps the most encompassing rewording
comes in the Prologue, which can be found in the following
paragraph:

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Thus, questions about inequality in the modern
world can be reformulated as follows. Why did wealth and power become distributed as
they now are, rather than in some otehr way? For instance, why weren't Native Americans,
Africans, and Aboriginal Australians the ones who decimated, subjugated, or exterminated
Europeans and Asians?

This
is, essentially, Yali's question in a nutshell, and the rest of the excellent book is
Diamond's attempt (and a very convincing one at that) to answer it. Yali's question
essentially concerns the reason behind inequalities in history, and his rephrasing of
Yali's question in the above quote helpfully gives Diamond a good frame of reference
with which to approach this massive issue.

What is the depiction of familial relationships in Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich?

In the novel, Love Medicine, by
Louise Erdrich, the depiction of familial relationships seem to mirror everything about
the lives of the two families in the story, the Kashpaws and the Lamartines. The
struggles these families face in a "white man's world" are similar to the frustrations
they bring upon each other simply by trying to survive in their often times harsh
environment.

There is no question that the ties within
these families are very strong. These people love their "kin" without ceasing—much the
way they are with those they fall in love with: caring passionately, even if these
husbands or lovers are the worst thing that could happen to them. Within the family,
regardless of how it is defined, devotion and loyalty for each other, even when paired
with anger or disappointment, are cherished.

The
connections with regard to family is seen in how the characters define themselves in
terms of "who" they have come from. At the front of Erdrich's novel (printed in 2009)
there is a family tree. The "legend" helps distinguish how these many family members are
related, and is defined in terms of relationships (marriage or affairs) and
children. There is a distinction between children of biological
birth and adoption, but these are not necessarily in place to show the separation
between the "kinds" of children as much as to illustrate the how far the
arms of the family spread through the
children.

Some of these family relationships are functional
and some are not. Lulu describes her relationship with her
boys:

Some did
me grief, though I was proud of
them.

Her pain and pride go
hand-in-hand. Gerry was "in and out of prison," but was able to speak to their people,
moving their hearts and spirits. Tragically, Henry, Jr., went off to war, but came back
so changed and broken, and he eventually took his own life, though his brother Lyman
tried to lie to make Lulu believe it was an accident. Lyman wanted to protect his
mother, but in losing his brother, he was never the
same.

"Family ties" is one of the novel's major
themes.

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...very strong ties exist among all the
characters—the ties to their common families and
heritage.

The ties that bind
in this novel are those of family, which transcend poverty, abandonment, loss, and
tragedy. While historically much has been done to subjugate the Native American and
dismantle his cultural heritage, this book demonstrates that love is often the
"strongest medicine" of all.

Why is the setting so important in Katherine Paterson's The Great Gilly Hopkins?

In Katherine Paterson's novel, The Great Gilly
Hopkins, I would assume the setting is important primarily because while
living in Maryland, Gilly will be required to interact with "people of color." With all
of the resentments Gilly has acquired in being bounced from one foster home to the next,
she takes her frustrations out on the weak (like William Ernest, the other foster child
in her home) and especially African-Americans. Her teacher, Miss Harris, and the
Trotter's dear friend, a blind Mr. Randolf, suffer from Gilly's lack of
tolerance.

This element of the story provides the reader
with a clear sense of Gilly's frustration with her life. It is especially obvious when
she arrives at the Trotter house. Gilly meets Maime Trotter and describes her (unkindly)
as a "bale of blubber" and a "freak." With William Ernest
(W.E.)...

She
waited until Mrs. Trotter and Miss Ellis were talking, then gave little W.E. the most
fearful face in all her repertory of scary looks, sort of a cross between Count Dracula
and Godzilla.

By the time she
gets into school, Gilly ends up making a racist card for Miss Harris, and later steals
money from blind Mr. Randolph.

However, it is only by
seeing this side of Gilly that the reader can begin to appreciate the changes Gilly goes
through when she really begins to settle in at Maime Trotter's home. She begins to read
to Mr. Randolph from the books in his library. Gilly also starts to cooperate with Miss
Harris, which enables Gilly to excel in her studies. Gilly even comes to the place where
she identifies Maime Trotter as her "mom," William as her "brother, and Mr. Randolph as
her uncle. These changes are indicative of how far Gilly has come. Without Gilly's need
to come to terms with the issue of race in her daily life at school and at home, we
would never have been able to see how far she has come by the time she is forced to
leave yet again.

What is the Declaration of the People of Farmington, 1774?

The Declaration of the People of Farmington was a
statement issued by the people of Farmington, Connecticut.  It was a protest against the
laws enacted by Parliament in response to the Boston Tea Party.  Specifically, it was a
reaction to the law that closed Boston harbor.

After the
Tea Party, Parliament passed a series of laws punishing the colonists for their
actions.  One of these was the Boston Port Act.  This law closed the port of Boston
until the tea had been paid for and order restored.  The Declaration of the People of
Farmington protests against this law in very inflammatory terms and sentences the law to
be burned.