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How does Helen Keller show a spirit of resistance?

Helen Keller showed a spirit of resistance many times in her life. She faced life with determination. At first, her resistance had a negative impact on her life. Before Miss Sullivan came, Helen felt trapped in her dark and soundless world. She wanted to communicate like everyone else, but she could not. Helen described this time in her life: "The spirit of resistance was strong within me" (The Story of My Life, Chapter III). When she was frustrated, she felt trapped and sometimes threw fits. When Miss Sullivan arrived to be her teacher, Helen was resistant. She tried to get rid of Miss Sullivan by locking the woman in her room and hiding the key.

When Helen finally learned to communicate, she continued to resist boundaries placed upon her by others. For example, when Helen was at the Cambridge School, Mr. Gilman wanted her to take her time before entering college. Helen wanted to graduate with her class. When her mother withdrew her, Helen worked with determination with tutors to complete her studies on time.

From Philbrick's Freak the Mighty, what are three important things that Kevin teaches Max?

The opening lines of Philbrick's Freak the Mighty inform the reader about one of the first things Kevin does for Max: he teaches him how to use his brain.

"I never had a brain until Freak came along and let me borrow his for a while, and that's the truth, the whole truth. The unvanquished truth, is how Freak would say it, and for a long time it was him who did the talking" (1).

Kevin teaches Max to think for himself and how to find answers when he has questions. For example, Kevin shows Max how to use a dictionary to improve his vocabulary and speech. Max even receives a personal dictionary from Kevin for Christmas. It has all of the interesting words Kevin likes along with his own definitions. Once Max knows how to use a dictionary, he feels empowered to teach himself about words he doesn't understand.

Another thing Kevin teaches Max is to be brave. First, Kevin takes Max on quests just like King Arthur's noble knights did. This is Max's introduction to chivalry and doing brave things. Then, when Max is kidnapped, Kevin bravely confronts Killer Kane with a water gun that he says is filled with a deadly acid. When he sprays it into the kidnapper's eyes, the solution stings badly enough to distract Killer Kane so the boys can escape. Max learns just how clever Kevin is because he did not put deadly chemicals in the water gun--he filled it with soap, vinegar, and curry powder!

Finally, Kevin instills a sense of confidence in Max that he might not have found. He is able to do this by teaching Max about reading and writing in a way that teachers could not. For example, in chapter 13, Kevin tells Max that reading is like listening and writing is like talking. Max's response to this is as follows:

"Like Freak says, reading is just a way of listening, and I could always listen, but writing is like talking, and that's a whole other ball game" (82).

Before Kevin dies, he tells Max to write down all of their adventures. This is scary for Max because he does not believe that he can read and write well. Kevin refuses to accept Max's fear of writing and tells him that all he has to do is write down all of the memories he has about their adventures as Freak the Mighty. After Kevin dies, Max eventually gets around to writing their story and realizes that he can write. All he has to do is overcome his fear of failure and complete the task at hand. In the end, Max learns to use his brain to find ways to learn for himself; next, to be brave and confident in everything he does; and finally, to conquer his fear of reading and writing by simply tackling each task that comes his way.

What is the purpose of each of George’s handicaps in "Harrison Bergeron"?

George Bergeron's handicaps are meant to reduce him to the level of an average person so that he will be equal to all others in his society.

The society of 2081 has managed to make "everybody...finally equal." Hazel, the wife of George Bergeron, is perfectly average, so she wears no handicaps. However, her husband George is highly intelligent and physically strong; therefore, he is required to wear various handicaps.

Mental-handicap radio - George must wear...

George Bergeron's handicaps are meant to reduce him to the level of an average person so that he will be equal to all others in his society.

Mental-handicap radio - George must wear this radio in his ear. At intervals of twenty seconds, a transmitter sends a sharp noise that prevents him from having an unfair mental advantage. Some of the noises that are sent through George's mind are so strong that he is physically stunned. Whenever he has a thought, a sharp noise occurs or sirens sound so that he will not finish a thought or remember what it is.

Handicap bag - George wears a canvas bag that contains forty-seven pounds of birdshot. This bag is padlocked around his neck. If he tampers with this handicap, George can be sentenced to two years in prison and a thousand dollar fine for every lead ball he removes.

When George's bag becomes too heavy for him, his wife Hazel tells him to lie on the couch for a while:

"Go on and rest the bag for a little while....I don't care if you're not equal to me for a while."

But George is so indoctrinated that he tells his wife that if he lightens his load, then other people might do the same, and before too long, they would all be in the dark ages again in which inequality existed.

"With the enthusiastic egotism of a true artist, he went over his most celebrated performances." Explain this quotation with reference to Chapter...

This quote appears in Chapter Two of "The Canterville Ghost," after the ghost has attempted to frighten the Otis family for the first time by rattling his chains along the corridor. The response to this act, however, is less than encouraging: instead of being scared, Mr Otis offers the ghost some Tammany Rising Sun Lubricator to oil his chains so that they make less noise. The ghost is dumbfounded by this response:

Never, in a...

Never, in a brilliant and uninterrupted career of three hundred years, had he been so grossly insulted.

The ghost, therefore, is seeking a solution to overcome the scepticism of the Otis family. As he ponders this conundrum, he reflects on his past achievements. He is proud of his career thus far ("his most celebrated performances") and finds comfort in these memories. This is symbolic of the culture clash which exists between the two men: the ghost represents the traditional and sentimental British aristocracy while Mr Otis stands for the modern and rational American New World.

Furthermore, by referring to the ghost as a "true artist," Wilde makes an important reference to aestheticism, a nineteenth-century movement which emphasised "art for art's sake." In Wilde's eyes, the ghost is a "true artist" because he focuses only on the perfection of his performance, not about the moral consequences of scaring people who live in the house.

What hard lesson does Jem learn from Mrs. Dubose's medical problem?

In Chapter 11, Atticus punishes Jem for destroying Mrs. Dubose's camellia bush and makes him read to her ever day for two hours, except for Sundays, for an entire month. Later on in the chapter, Mrs. Dubose passes away, and Atticus explains to his children that Mrs. Dubose suffered from a chronic disease and was addicted to morphine. Atticus tells Jem that his reading occupied Mrs. Dubose's mind and helped her beat her morphine addiction....

"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting that idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what" (Lee 69).

Jem learns an important lesson about "real courage." According to Atticus, Mrs. Dubose was the bravest person he's ever met for conquering her morphine addiction. Jem learns that Mrs. Dubose was courageous and had a strong will. He realizes that Mrs. Dubose's will to conquer her extremely painful illness demonstrated her integrity and courage.

Did the Civil Rights Movement succeed in achieving its desired change?

The American Civil Rights Movement has had successes and failures. There have been significant improvements as a result of the movement, but there still are areas where full equality doesn't exist.

The American Civil Rights Movement used various techniques to achieve some of its goals. The NAACP often used the courts to achieve their goals. The Brown v Board of Education case led to the ending of the practice of separate but equal schools. Schools could no longer be segregated based on race. The Norris v Alabama case prevented African-Americans from being excluded from juries.

The movement also used various forms of protests. The Montgomery Bus Boycott led to the end of segregation on city buses. It was a common practice to have separate sections on buses for blacks and whites. The sit-in was used to highlight the segregation that took places in public places such as restaurants. The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prevented segregation in public places.

Marches were also used to highlight inequalities. The Selma March was designed to protest the lack of African-Americans that were registered to vote. The violent response by the police eventually led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Literacy tests and poll taxes could no longer be used to deny people the right to vote. Federal officials also helped to register voters.

The Civil Rights Act of 1968 prevented discrimination in housing sales and rentals. It was now illegal to deny a person the opportunity to rent an apartment or buy a house based on their race.

These accomplishments brought about major changes. However, the Civil Rights Movement has not changed and improved everything. White attitudes took a long time to change. Many people resisted these changes and harassed and threatened African-Americans. The Southern Manifesto was an example of white opposition to the Brown v Board of Education Case. 101 southern members of Congress vowed to fight the case. The angry response to school desegregation orders was very visible at Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Little Rock Nine needed military protection to go to school. James Meredith needed federal protection to register at the University of Mississippi. The Freedom Riders were attacked as they went to the South to try to achieve equality. The KKK was still strong in the South.

Today, African-Americans lag behind in economic opportunities. They make less money than whites make. They tend to have lower graduation rates than whites have. They have higher incarceration levels than whites have. Thus, while the Civil Rights Movement brought about many changes, we still don't have full equality in the United States.

Why does the speaker say that the stars have "Hearts of fire" in "Stars" by Sara Teasdale?

Sara Teasdale's poem "Stars" describes the speaker's experience of walking up onto a hill one night to examine the blanket of stars dotting the sky above her. This poem--like the vast majority of Teasdale's work--is pretty straightforward and does not contain any complex narrative approach. Rather, she chooses to have the speaker simply describe the scene before her with figurative language.

The poem opens with the speaker standing on the "dark hill" surrounded by a...

The poem opens with the speaker standing on the "dark hill" surrounded by a forest of pines. She then turns her head to look up at the "heaven full of stars" and begins to describe their colors, suggesting that they are "Myriads with beating / Hearts of fire." Teasdale is personifying the stars in this line, giving them the anatomical quality of a human being (a heart) and creating an emotional implication of brightness, passion, and desire (in stating that the hearts are "of fire"). This image alludes to the eternal and expansive quality of the natural world in the face of human "smallness" and mortality.