Would you say that Gatsby was a victim of circumstances or an instigator of tragic events?

This is ultimately a matter of personal opinion, but I believe that Gatsby was the instigator of his own tragic demise. Gatsby's motivations throughout the entirety of the book are hidden and dishonest. He claims to want nothing more than the love of Daisy, but his actions could be read as supporting an obsession with his own image. Gatsby becomes fixated on amassing a fortune in order to be "worthy" of Daisy's love, but it...

This is ultimately a matter of personal opinion, but I believe that Gatsby was the instigator of his own tragic demise. Gatsby's motivations throughout the entirety of the book are hidden and dishonest. He claims to want nothing more than the love of Daisy, but his actions could be read as supporting an obsession with his own image. Gatsby becomes fixated on amassing a fortune in order to be "worthy" of Daisy's love, but it was quite clear that the lengths to which he went to do this were unnecessary, as he even engaged in illegal behavior. Additionally, Gatsby is an awfully demanding fellow for someone who believes himself to be offering up unconditional love. He tries to play an "all or nothing" game with Daisy and Tom when the news of their affair comes out, and he loses.

A more realistic man would have seen that Daisy—now a married woman who seems committed to that marriage, if only to retain the status and privileges that it offers her—is out of reach. Instead, Gatsby railed against the obvious and pursued her relentlessly, engineering opportunities for the pair to reunite. Even at the end, Gatsby can't seem to take a hint; when Daisy won't fully commit after their affair is revealed to Tom, Gatsby still attempts to sweep her away from the marriage he considers so disastrous. The fact of the matter is that if Daisy had truly wanted to leave Tom, she would have. She had an opening to do so and declined.

That being said, many people tend to view Gatsby as a tragic, romantic hero who simply runs out of luck and gets dealt a bad hand. So, my best advice is to read the book and decide for yourself!

In Muypassant's "The Necklace," Mathilde's conflict is internal until she loses the necklace. She decides to lie, then struggles to find a way to...

I would classify the overall conflict as character vs. society, because Mathilde’s issue is that she is not wealthy.  She wants to be upper class.  She wants to be what she feels she was born to be.  She has an innate feeling that she was designed to be better than she is. 

She was one of those pretty and charming girls born, as though fate had blundered over her, into a family of artisans. She had no marriage portion, no expectations, no means of getting known, understood, loved, and wedded by a man of wealth and distinction … 

Mathilde sees her birth as an accident of fate, but this is because she was born into a class-conscious society.  She has been told by society that she is worth less because of her low birth.  She wants to be valued, so she wants to be rich. 

If Mathilde had not desired to rise above her class, if just for one night, she never would have been in that situation.

"I'm utterly miserable at not having any jewels, not a single stone, to wear," she replied. "I shall look absolutely no one. I would almost rather not go to the party. 

She borrowed the necklace so she would look wealthy.  She was too embarrassed to admit she lost it, because her friend was of a higher social class.  That caused her to end up in debt.

The irony is that Mathilde's social climbing caused her to end up at an even lower status than she started.  She also lost the only thing of value she possessed.  Years of a hard life paying off the debt eradicated her beauty, and it was all for nothing.  

If she had not insisted on being treated like a wealthy person, her husband would not have worked so hard to get the invitation.  If she had not borrowed the jewel and refused to be honest about it, she never would have lost her looks and the lifestyle she had.  She was again a victim of society as well as her own ambitions.

How much success was generated from WTO initiatives to liberalize services industries around the world? How does this liberalization affect the...

Research is still focusing on answering the question of how much success was generated by World Trade Organization initiatives to liberalize service industries. Service industries comprise the service sector of the economy, which is the tertiary level of economic sectors. It focuses on intangible service industries, such as financial services, tourism and transportation services, and is third to the secondary manufacturing sector and the primary agricultural sector. Fortunately, some information on the success of WTO's GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services) initiatives is available from as recently as 2016. This recent information helps to focus the overall perspective that there is a mixture of success and currently unfulfilled expectations.

Success: Panama reports in Focus Economics that their service sector accounts for 75% of their gross domestic product (GDP) and the strength of their globally-oriented economy is linked to US dollars. Panama is further expanding its service industry through a Chinese consortium funding an agreement to build an Atlantic-side container port on the Panama Canal, with negotiations underway for a similar container port on the Pacific side of the canal. Panama has had a lot of success. As of 2011, the Philippines are also considered successful, as was predicted in 1999.

Waiting Expectations: Facing market encroachments on their sugar, textile, and apparel industries, Mauritius developed a strategy for increasing tourism and hotel service in their service sector. As of 2015, contribution to GDP from tourism and hotel services, as reported by the World Travel and Tourism Council, rose from slightly over 80 billion Mauritian Rupee (80 MURbn) in 2005 to slightly over 100 MURbn in 2015 (with fluctuations between over 100 MURbn in 2007-08 and down to 90MURbn in 2009). Mauritius expects to attain its original goal of 150 MURbn by 2025 (Mauritius, 2004-5 and 2015).

Under Expectations: African nations classified as least developed countries and low-income countries (LDCs and LICs) have not been able to take advantage of service sector liberalization because they lack capitalization due to insufficient foreign direct investment (FDI) for service sector and infrastructure development. Currently, the advocated strategy is based on "the imperative of attracting service sector FDI" that will fund "servicification of production and global value chains (GVCs)" (Nkululeko Khumalo, Bridges Africa, ICTSD). These concepts include packaging services with manufacturing sector goods (servicification) and tapping into technological and organizational changes in transnational corporations (African Nations, June, 2016).

Research published in 2012 by Bernard Hoekman and Aaditya Mattoo of the World Bank states that liberalization of "trade and investment" in service industries has had ineffective, limited progress:

Liberalization of trade and investment in services through trade agreements has progressed less than trade in goods. . . limited progress [has been] achieved to date in the WTO and major regional agreements on services. . . trade agreements have not been more effective at integrating the services markets of participating countries.

This echoes the 2009 research by Rudolf Adlung of the World Trade Organization that found there has been "virtually no liberalization" in service industries because of a mercantilist attitude of equal exchange in trade.

The Preambles to GATT and GATS refer [to]. . . the concept of '. . . reciprocal and mutually advantageous arrangements [and to] Members' desire to achieve 'progressively higher levels of liberalization through successive rounds of multilateral negotiations aimed at promoting the interests of all participants on a mutually advantageous basis.' 

Liberalization affects the relationships between developing and developed countries in at least two recognizable ways:

1. Developing countries depend more on developed countries (e.g., capital dependence in African LDCs and LICs), especially in light of the need for FDI (compare Panama to Mauritius or African countries).


2. The mercantilistic attitude in the WTO agreements (GATS) requires an equal reciprocity in trade agreements and transactions, a reciprocity many developing countries are not equipped to meet.

What inspired Edgar Allan Poe to write "The Fall the House of Usher"?

The accepted theory is that Poe may have become inspired to write the story "The Fall of the House of Usher" by events that took place years before he was born, in the year 1800. According to the Guide to Boston (AIA, Susan and Michael Southworth p. 59), there once was an "Usher House" that stood in Boston's Lewis Wharf. At least, it is true that a house was registered to an "Usher," who lived there with...

The accepted theory is that Poe may have become inspired to write the story "The Fall of the House of Usher" by events that took place years before he was born, in the year 1800. According to the Guide to Boston (AIA, Susan and Michael Southworth p. 59), there once was an "Usher House" that stood in Boston's Lewis Wharf. At least, it is true that a house was registered to an "Usher," who lived there with his young wife. 

The legend goes that, years after the owners had passed, the house remained derelict and had to be demolished like other properties in the area. The grisly discovery of two human skeletons beneath the remains, holding one another in an embrace, propelled a number of potential theories as to what went on in the house. 

The legend goes that the young wife of Usher was having an affair with a sailor, and that the two would meet at the Usher home, where they would hide in the cellar area. Apparently, Mr. Usher found them in action and locked them in the cellar, presumably until their deaths.

The news must have circulated around town for years, as Poe was not born until 1809 (this was right around 1800). The fact that we still hear the story more than two centuries later means it quickly reached urban legend status, a folklore, so to speak, where details are added year after year. It is no surprise that Poe may have grown up hearing the story of these two locked up lovers who were basically prematurely buried in a cellar. The idea of a locked cellar with live people inside squirming for their lives for days on end may have also prompted the writing of "The Cask of Amontillado" and "Premature Burial," where the characters suffer the horror of being put in a sealed space with no control of their circumstances, left to die.

How do we make sure a laser light is perpendicular to a diffraction grating when conducting a diffraction grating experiment?

We can just eyeball it, basically. For most applications, it simply isn't important if the laser is exactly perpendicular or a degree or two off in either direction. If the angles in each direction differ slightly, we can just average them.If you do actually need to line it up precisely, you can measure the two diffraction angles in each direction,` theta_R ` on the right and `theta_L` on the left. You can then slowly...

We can just eyeball it, basically. For most applications, it simply isn't important if the laser is exactly perpendicular or a degree or two off in either direction. If the angles in each direction differ slightly, we can just average them.

If you do actually need to line it up precisely, you can measure the two diffraction angles in each direction,` theta_R ` on the right and `theta_L` on the left. You can then slowly adjust the positioning of the grating until these two angles are exactly equal to within the available precision. The precision of alignment depends upon the precision of your angle measurements and the precision with which you can move the grating.

Like I said, though, for most practical purposes, you can just line it up so it looks close enough. Sometimes exact science isn't an exact science.

What did Henry Cabot Lodge believe regarding American imperialism?

Henry Cabot Lodge (1850-1924), was a Republican Senator from Massachusetts. He was a friend (and fellow Harvard graduate) of Teddy Roosevelt. When Lodge joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1896, he supported policies to promote American imperialism. To this end, he supported the idea of American preparedness to enter a war and the build up of the Navy under Roosevelt. 

When World War I broke out under President Woodrow Wilson, Lodge was opposed to...

Henry Cabot Lodge (1850-1924), was a Republican Senator from Massachusetts. He was a friend (and fellow Harvard graduate) of Teddy Roosevelt. When Lodge joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1896, he supported policies to promote American imperialism. To this end, he supported the idea of American preparedness to enter a war and the build up of the Navy under Roosevelt. 

When World War I broke out under President Woodrow Wilson, Lodge was opposed to Wilson's initial pacifist stance regarding the war. He also opposed Wilson's call for "peace without victory," and he wanted Germany to accept responsibility for causing the war. At the war's end, Lodge firmly opposed Wilson's "14 Points" and his call for a League of Nations. Lodge thought that the "14 Points" would take away the power of U.S. Congress to declare war, and he thought that the U.S. should have the power to intervene in world affairs as befitted a world power. Lodge defeated Wilson's plan to make the U.S. a signatory of the Treaty of Versailles, and the U.S. did not sign the treaty. 

What food item does Atticus Finch not eat?

In the book, Scout tells us that Atticus never eats desserts.

Other than that, Atticus is a man who enjoys his food. A good father, he appreciates eating dinner with Scout and Jem on most evenings. Food is of central importance in the communities of Maycomb.

For example, after Tom Robinson's trial, the African-American community shows its appreciation to Atticus by showering the family with gifts of food. During breakfast one morning, Atticus is surprised...

In the book, Scout tells us that Atticus never eats desserts.

Other than that, Atticus is a man who enjoys his food. A good father, he appreciates eating dinner with Scout and Jem on most evenings. Food is of central importance in the communities of Maycomb.

For example, after Tom Robinson's trial, the African-American community shows its appreciation to Atticus by showering the family with gifts of food. During breakfast one morning, Atticus is surprised by the presence of chicken and rolls on his plate. Calpurnia explains that the chicken is a gift from Tom Robinson's father and the rolls are gifts from a woman named Estelle. In the kitchen, the table is loaded down with hunks of salt pork, beans, tomatoes, scuppernongs (grapes), and even a jar of pickled pig's knuckles.

In the book, Miss Maudie is an expert in baking a Southern favorite: Lane cake. In fact, her Lane cakes are so good that Miss Stephanie Crawford is said to have been after the recipe for thirty years. Here's the recipe for Lane Cake.

Despite Maycomb's love for desserts, however, it is the one dish that Atticus will never eat.