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Why was Lyddie fired, according to the agent and the overseer, in Lyddie by Katherine Paterson?

Lyddie was supposedly fired for being immoral, when she was really fired for standing up for Brigid when Mr. Marsden tried to assault her.

Lyddie was fired from her job at the factory because she saw Mr. Marsden trying to assault Brigid. She was not surprised that he would do this, since he had done the same thing to her. When she was sick with a fever, he had tried to kiss her. Clearly, he has a...

Lyddie was supposedly fired for being immoral, when she was really fired for standing up for Brigid when Mr. Marsden tried to assault her.

When Lyddie saw Mr. Marsden and Brigid, she had to act.

Lyddie snatched up the fire bucket. It was full of water, but she didn't notice the weight. "Please-no--" She ran down the aisle between the looms toward the voice and saw in the shadows Brigid, eyes white with fear, and Mr. Marsden's back. His hands were clamped on Brigid's arms. (Ch. 20)

Lyddie hits Mr. Marsden with the bucket, which may have been a little extreme but was her best solution under the circumstances. They run, and Lyddie laughs. Later she regrets laughing, because he must have heard her.

Lyddie is sent to agent Graves. She wonders what Mr. Marsden said about her, but is still surprised when she learns that he reported her for being a troublemaker.

"It seems," he continued, "it seems you are a troublemaker in the weaving room." He was studying her closely now, as closely as he had studied his papers before. "A troublemaker," he repeated.

"I, sir?"

"Yes. Mr. Marsden fears you are having a bad influence on the other girls there." (Ch. 21)

So Lyddie is fired for “moral turpitude,” but she has no idea what that means. She later looks in a dictionary and finds out they called her immoral. She is upset about this, because of course Mr. Marsden is the immoral one. There is nothing she can do about this though. She has no recourse. She was fired, and will never work in the factory again.

What character experienced change during The Last Lecture?

Jai experiences change in The Last Lecture.

The question is a difficult one to answer because there is little room for change in the narrative. Everyone concerned knows that "the elephant in the room" is Randy's inevitable death. This end point is the beginning, and as a result, no one really changes as a result of the lecture. For example, Randy started off as a "Tigger" and still is at lecture's end.

However, one...

Jai experiences change in The Last Lecture.

However, one change we can see is in Jai. At the start of the narrative, she is not comfortable with Randy delivering the lecture. Jai was "leery of this whole last-lecture idea" because of how much time it will consume. She was not comfortable with it because it was going to take something that neither she or her husband could afford to surrender:

We had just moved from Pittsburgh to Southeastern Virginia so that after my death, Jai and the kids could be near her family. Jai felt that I ought to be spending my precious time with our kids, or unpacking our new house, rather than devoting my hours to writing the lecture and then traveling back to Pittsburgh to deliver it.

'Call me selfish,' Jai told me. 'But I want all of you. Any time you’ll spend working on this lecture is lost time, because it’s time away from the kids and from me.'

Eventually, Jai gives into Randy's demand. Her initial apprehension is changed when she attends the lecture. She sits in the front row and watches her husband, "the showman," put on his last show for the public. Since Randy delivered the lecture on her birthday, he breaks from his remarks in order to present a cake and has the entire audience sing "Happy Birthday:" "As we all sang, I finally allowed myself to look at Jai. She sat in her front-row seat, wiping away tears with this surprised smile on her face, looking so lovely—bashful and beautiful, pleased and overwhelmed…." The "surprised smile on her face" is a change from the frustration Jai displayed at the start of the narrative.

What is the critical angle for a light ray traveling from diamond into glass?

The critical angle is defined as the highest angle of incidence that does not result in total internal reflection; it is the angle at which refraction will occur at pi/2 radians (90 degrees), the light traveling along the boundary between the two media.By Snell's Law, we know that angle of refraction and refractive index are related as follows:`n_1 sin (theta_1) = n_2 sin (theta_2)` At the critical angle, by definition `theta_2 = pi/2`,...

By Snell's Law, we know that angle of refraction and refractive index are related as follows:

`n_1 sin (theta_1) = n_2 sin (theta_2)`

At the critical angle, by definition `theta_2 = pi/2`, so `sin(theta_2) = 1`.

`n_1 sin(theta_1) = n_2`

Solving for theta_1 gives us the critical angle in terms of the refractive indices:

`theta_1 = sin^{-1} (n_2 / n_1)`

Notice how this will be undefined if `n_2 gt n_1`; total internal reflection (and thus, a critical angle) only occurs when light travels to a medium with a lower refractive index. All we need now is to know the refractive indices of glass and diamond. Diamond we know quite precisely as 2.417; glass varies a bit depending on its precise composition, but is usually about 1.5.

`theta_1 = sin^{-1} (1.5/2.417) = sin^{-1}(0.62)`
`theta_1 = 0.67 rad = 38 deg`
The critical angle is about 38 degrees.

In Night, what was Elie Wiesel's first impression of Auschwitz after leaving Birkenau?

Eliezer's first impression of Auschwitz was that it was better than Birkenau.

Witnessing the massive amount of killing in Birkenau was Eliezer's introduction to the horrors of the Holocaust. He experienced personal trauma because it was the last time he saw his mother and sister. They were sent to a different line than Eliezer and his father. He also saw the extent of the Nazi death machinery. Eliezer recalls the faces of the children he saw enter the crematorium, and the vastness of suffering surrounding him: "This is what the antechamber of hell must look like. So many crazed men, so much shouting, so much brutality."

Eliezer suggests that the prisoners "had already lived through a lot that night" and that "nothing could frighten us anymore." As a result, Eliezer's first impressions of Auschwitz was that it was better than Birkenau. He explains how the buildings were made of concrete, an improvement from Birkenau's wooden barracks. Additionally, Auschwitz is the first place where Eliezer experienced being treated as a person. As the prisoners enter their block, the Polish man in charge addresses them. Eliezer describes him as smiling as he speaks about what the prisoners will experience. Eliezer notes how he wished them a "good night" as they slept. Such a gesture carried tremendous importance given what Eliezer had seen and experienced in Birkenau.

What did the poet wish to do in the future in "The Road Not Taken"?

This reference comes in the third stanza, with the lines:

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

This reference comes in the third stanza, with the lines:

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

The narrator had already chosen one of the two paths, “the one less traveled by.” Now he says at first that he could always come back and follow the other path on some other day in the future. But just as quickly, he understands how life works. He knows that even though he can have the best of intentions to someday return to the point where the two routes divide, the reality is that he probably won’t come back. Another “future” scene appears in the final stanza, when the narrator says that from this moment on, he will be explaining to people how and why he made the decision he did. Will he then be happy about his past choice? This is the question we debate.

What are some literary devices used in The Picture of Dorian Gray?

In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde uses a number of literary techniques to develop his characters and to enhance some of the novel's key themes.

Allusions, for example, are widely used in Chapter One to reveal more about Dorian's appearance and character. He is likened to Adonis, a man of great beauty from Greek mythology, to demonstrate his visual appeal to the reader. He is also likened to Narcissus, another figure from Greek mythology, who fell in love with his own image and died because he could not stop looking at himself in the reflection of a pond. By including this allusion, Wilde also foreshadows Dorian's future and suggests that his self-love will develop into an unhealthy obsession.

Wilde also uses a number of symbols in the novel. The portrait, for example, becomes a living representation of Dorian's soul which degrades as his levels of vice and immorality increase. It also represents the unavoidable process of ageing which Dorian is so keen to prevent. In addition, the yellow book, given to Dorian by Lord Henry, is another important symbol because it demonstrates Lord Henry's corrupting influence on the young Dorian.

Witty sayings, called epigrams, are also an important feature of Dorian Gray. They not only enhance Wilde's lively writing style but also reveal much about the character of Lord Henry. He uses them, for example, to add a humorous element to his negative views on women:

Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly.

That Dorian emulates Lord Henry's use of epigrams illustrates the extent of the latter's influence. One example comes from Chapter Four when Dorian speaks of Sybil Vane:

Ordinary women never appeal to one's imagination. They are limited to their century.

Furthermore, these epigrams are often ironic or paradoxical in nature:

There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that it not being talked about.

This use of irony suggests that Lord Henry and Dorian are superficial people; they are driven by a need to appear to be witty and intelligent. Dorian captures this idea in Chapter 19:

You would sacrifice anybody, Harry, for the sake of an epigram.

Unfortunately, Dorian's realisation comes too late: he cannot be redeemed from his life of vice and corruption as we see most clearly in his untimely demise.

What impact did the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act have on people's lives?

The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act was passed in South Africa in 1953. It had a tremendous impact on the people’s lives. This law was a part of the system of segregation that existed in South Africa. It impacted both whites and non-whites because it allowed a legal basis for separating the races.

This law allowed for segregation in public places. Restaurants, bathrooms, theaters, and hotels were some examples where segregation existed. Segregation was also found in the educational system at all levels, including the university level. Since the segregated facilities and institutions weren’t equal in quality, this law basically implied that the races weren’t equal in South Africa.

Segregation, or the apartheid system, was a part of the way of life in South Africa for many years. It wasn’t until 1990 that the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act was repealed. It took until 1994 for the apartheid system to end in South Africa. There was a great deal of worldwide pressure placed on South Africa to end the apartheid system.