Notes

Gatsby's determination to better himself is made evident in the daily schedule he devised for himself, along with a list of the "general resolves." He wrote them on the last, blank page of a copy of  Hopalong Cassidy  as a boy, and Mr. Gatz shows this to Nick in chapter nine.The concept is likely inspired by Benjamin Franklin's pursuit of "moral perfection" as outlined in his autobiography; it, too, has a daily schedule and list of desired behaviors and qualities he called "virtues." According to young Jimmy Gatz's daily schedule, he would rise at 6 a.m. to exercise for thirty minutes. He would study for an hour, work for eight hours, exercise for another thirty minutes, spend an hour working on "elocution" and "poise" and then study "needed inventions" for two hours before bed. The "general resolves" include not wasting time, avoiding tobacco, bathing, reading, saving money, and being "better to par...

The Bible is a complex book. In fact, the Protestant version is composed of sixty-six books, written by a range of authors. There are many themes that run through the Bible, and there are many places in the Bible that can be points of confusion. The Bible is also a book that has been interpreted in various ways for close to 2000 years. There are many writings about the Bible and traditions that have arisen from these interpretations.  In Western Europe, prior to the early 1500s, the Catholic Church was the only official Christian church. People who interpreted the Bible differently were called heretics and received terrible punishments if they were caught. In fact, the word "catholic" means "universal."  Churches, such as Baptist, Pentecostal, Calvinist, Lutheran, Methodist, and so forth, did not arise until Martin Luther, then a monk in the Catholic church, challenged some of the Catholic traditions of the time. For example, some priests had been selling God's ...

Montresor, the narrator, seeks revenge on Fortunato because he feels that Fortunato has insulted him.  He says, in the first line, "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge."  Thus, Montresor seems to feel that Fortunato has wounded his honor a great many times, and when Fortunato finally insults him, he can no longer stand by and take it any more. Further, Montresor's family motto is "Nemo me impune lacessit," which means No one harms me with impunity , and his family arms show a human foot stepping on a snake which is, in turn, biting the foot.  It seems that it isn't just Montresor's personal honor that Fortunato has wounded, but also Montresor's sense of family honor, since this family prides itself on avenging any crimes done to it.  So, in order not to dishonor either himself or his family, Montresor seems to feel that he must exact revenge on Fortunato for whatever "i...

There are many racist practices addressed by Ellison in the book. He set out to write a book that was a comprehensive rebuttal of racism towards African-Americans, and most scholars agree that he succeeded. However, there are only two forms of racism that Ellison identifies in the book. These two types of racism encompass all of the discriminatory actions mentioned in the work. The two forms of racism are overt racism, where the discrimination is blatant, and hidden racism, where the discrimination is only visible to those who know what to look for. In fact, those guilty of hidden racism in the book often don't know they're being racist, and aren't setting out to treat people of color differently. Ellison responds to prejudice not with prejudice of his own, but with empathy. He highlights the similarities between human beings of all races. These similarities, he argues, show that one race is not better than the other.

Naturalism in literature focuses on depicting life realistically and adheres to an underlying philosophy that suggests people are products of their environments. F. Scott Fitzgerald's novella May Day describes in detail a period of a little more than 24 hours in the lives of young New Yorkers from different walks of life. Fitzgerald's use of detail in May Day captures his characters and the time period exquisitely. The descriptions of the clothes are tell-tale signs of social class and wealth: "...his visitor’s dark eyes roved nervously around the room, resting for a moment on a great English traveling bag in the corner and on a family of thick silk shirts littered on the chairs amid impressive neckties and soft woolen socks." By this description readers recognize the possessions of a rich young man. The visitor, on the other hand, "held his coat-sleeves down and worked the frayed shirt-cuffs up till they were out of sight." The visitor is down on his luck...

There are a couple of quotes that support the idea that racism was widespread in Maycomb.  During the 1930’s in the South, segregation was a way of life and no one questioned it.  I think perhaps the best example of this is Jem’s reflection on the four kinds of people in Maycomb. “…I’ve thought about it a lot lately and I’ve got it figured out. There’s four kinds of folks in the world. There’s the ordinary kind like us and the neighbors, there’s the kind like the Cunninghams out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the Negroes.” (Ch. 23)  Jem is young, and hopeful.  He is coming of age, and trying to understand the way the world works.  This is the realization that he has come to—the world is divided by class and race.  The “Negroes” are on the bottom of his list because they are on the bottom of Maycomb’s social hierarchy.  It is just the way it is.  While we see racism as wrong today, in Maycomb it is totally normal.  Another good example of the explanation of...

Strict liability and presumptive law differ a great deal. In cases of strict liability, whether a person or company negligently or intentionally caused harm to person or property does not matter; the person or the company is still held liable. In cases of presumption, there is a legal presumption about the situation, but this is generally what is called a rebuttable presumption.  Strict liability is a legal construct designed to protect society from situations in which there is such inherent danger that someone must be liable if something goes wrong. The examples of this I learned about in law school included the use of explosives and owning a tiger. No matter how careful people are with these "dangerous instrumentalities," it is easy to see how things could go wrong with them. If we are going to allow people to use explosives and keep wild tigers, we want to be sure that, when things go wrong, someone will have to pay for it. So, even if people handle explosives and tigers p...