How does Mrs. Baker change from the beginning to the end of the story in Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars?

In Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars, at first, Mrs. Baker seems to resent the fact that Holling Hoodhood will be left alone in her class every Wednesday afternoon while all other seventh graders are either at Temple Beth-El, attending Hebrew School, or at Saint Adelberts, attending Catechism. She expresses her resentment so much that Holling reaches the conclusion she hates him and is even out to kill him or at least get him in some way. Yet, by the end of the novel, Mrs. Baker helps Holling in multiple ways; she helps him so much that she becomes a role model for him.

Mrs. Baker first expresses her resentment by suggesting to the principle she thinks Holling should retake sixth-grade math; she does so in an effort to get Holling out of her class on Wednesday afternoons. When that effort fails, she resorts to giving him menial chores to do such as cleaning the chalkboards, cleaning chalkboard erasers, carrying 12 trays of cream puffs up to her classroom one tray at a time, and cleaning her pet rats' cage. When some of those tasks end in disaster, Mrs. Baker begins reading Shakespeare with Holling, which Holling is sure, at first, is some sort of torture.

However, the more he reads Shakespeare, the more he learns, and the closer his relationship with Mrs. Baker grows. As their relationship grows, she begins protecting his interests. For example, when Mickey Mantle behaves offensively in a sporting goods store owned by the Bakers, she comes to the rescue. Mickey Mantle refuses to sign Holling's baseball because Holling is still dressed like a fairy after performing Ariel in The Tempest. Holling's friend Danny Hupfer jumps to Holling's defense by refusing to accept the ball Mickey Mantle had just signed for him. When Mrs. Baker hears about the incident, she gives the kids "three brand-new baseballs" and arranges for them to meet Joe Pepitone and Horace Clarke, who sign their baseballs and give them tickets to the Yankees game on Opening Day ("December"). Later, she comes to Holling's rescue when his father neglects to take him to the game. She acts in other kind and encouraging ways as well by coaching Holling in cross-country running and by taking him on a tour of "points of local architectural interest" so that he might decide for himself whether or not he wants to be an architect like his father ("May").

What does the ozone layer protect and shield the organisms on Earth from?

The ozone layer protects and shields the organisms on Earth from ultraviolet light from the sun. It sits in the stratosphere, around nine miles above the surface of the earth. Basically, ozone molecules in the stratosphere absorb ultraviolet light, an excess of which can be extremely harmful to living things, including plants and animals (the fact that it causes skin cancer is why we should wear sunscreen when exposed to the sun). For many years, scientists warned that certain chemicals containing chlorine atoms, especially CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) used as propellants in aerosols, were actually eroding the ozone layer by destroying ozone molecules. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), these problems persist, despite increasing evidence that ozone depletion is causing "holes" over the Antarctic that threaten to expose the planet to dangerous levels of ultraviolet rays from the sun. Ozone depletion, along with climate change, remains among the most serious environmental challenges of the twenty-first century.

What event triggered Mr. Pignati's death?

The event that triggered Mr. Pignati's death was the discovery that his home had been wrecked by John and Lorraine's irresponsible actions while he was away.

In the story, Mr. Pignati has to stay in the hospital after a heart attack; meanwhile, in his absence, both John and Lorraine step forward to take care of Mr. Pignati's home. However, during Mr. Pignati's absence, the two classmates decide to hold a party. They invite a few friends over, but soon, more people show up. The kids play loud music and use the living room for a dance floor. In short, everyone treats Mr. Pignati's house carelessly, wrecking and damaging many of his belongings while they are there.

One of Lorraine and John's friends, Norton, destroys Mr. Pignati's pig collection by throwing the porcelain pigs against the wall or smashing them on the table. Although John beats up Norton for his despicable behavior, it is too late. The pigs have been irreversibly damaged beyond repair. Lorraine's friend, Helen, also manages to rip one of Conchetta's beautiful dresses. Mr. Pignati returns in the midst of all the fracas and is thoroughly grieved and hurt at what he sees. It is quite possibly the immense emotional trauma Mr. Pignati suffers that exacerbates his heart condition and leads to his premature death. The hurt he conceivably experienced when he realized the extent of John and Lorraine's betrayal must have been indescribable.

How does Steinbeck present the character of Crooks in Of Mice and Men?

Although the men refer to Crooks with a derogatory term which was widely used at that time, Steinbeck treats the character sympathetically. When he is first described in chapter two, Candy, the old swamper, tells George and Lennie that he likes Crooks and tells them why he has a crooked back:

“Yeah. Nice fella too. Got a crooked back where a horse kicked him. The boss gives him hell when he’s mad. But the stable buck don’t give a damn about that. He reads a lot. Got books in his room.”

Crooks is segregated and sometimes the victim of racism, as with the episode in the bunkhouse at Christmas, involving "Smitty." Because of this, he is naturally "aloof" and suspicious. His segregation makes him understandably mistrustful as he angrily tells Lennie why he's not wanted in the bunkhouse:

“’Cause I’m black. They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black. They say I stink. Well, I tell you, you all of you stink to me.” 

Crooks is also terribly lonely. He expresses this loneliness to Lennie in Chapter Four. He tells Lennie many of the details of his life, including how when he was a kid he played with white children. As an adult, however, he has grown bitter because he is generally excluded from companionship with the other men on the ranch:

“A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you. I tell ya,” he cried, “I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick.”

When Candy enters the scene, talk turns to how George, Candy and Lennie are buying a farm. While Crooks is at first skeptical, he soon begins to believe in the dream and offers to go along and "lend a hand." Unfortunately, Curley's wife soon reminds Crooks of his position as a second class citizen, and at the end of the chapter he withdraws his offer go to with the men. 

Crooks is used by Steinbeck to help establish the theme of loneliness which pervades the novel. It's not a coincidence that the two loneliest characters in the book, Crooks and Curley's wife, also a second class citizen, would clash in Chapter Four as the girl threatens Crooks with hanging if he doesn't keep his "place." After this episode, Crooks is once again diminished as a black man in a world that views him with derision, and he retreats into the solitude of a lonely and distant figure:

Crooks had reduced himself to nothing. There was no personality, no ego—nothing to arouse either like or dislike. He said, “Yes, ma’am,” and his voice was toneless. 

What irony is present in paragraph 18 of chapter II in The Scarlet Letter?

Ironically, Hester Prynne, who is on the Puritan scaffold because she has committed the sin of adultery, is compared to the Virgin Mary and Child of the Papists (Catholics).

Of course, another, more subtle irony is that were Mary actually standing on the scaffold, the Puritans would probably scorn her as well, since the Anglican Church, like the Catholic Church, reveres Mary as the mother of Christ. On the other hand, the Puritans sought to reform the Anglican Church by removing all traces of Catholicism from it. They certainly did not recognize Mary as holy or venerable as does the Anglican Church and sought to remove her from any type of veneration.

In this second chapter of The Scarlet Letter, as well as in the first, Hawthorne depicts the Puritans as stringent, "grimly rigid," and interested in "whatever penal infliction might be expected to ensue." The sinner, Hester Prynne, who apparently resembles a saintly figure as she stands on the ignominious scaffold, seems unjustly humiliated, especially with the ironic comparison.

How does Daisy treat men in The Great Gatsby?

Daisy treats men with a mix of angry scorn and dependence. Remember that Daisy is all about Daisy. She wants to be the center of attention; she does not want to take the responsibility of making decisions or owning her personal actions. Daisy values money and material possessions above all. As Gatsby so aptly put it, "Her voice is full of money."

Though she is angry with Tom for cheating on her repeatedly, she does not leave him. When the showdown between Tom and Gatsby occurs in the hotel in New York, Daisy can't commit to either man. It isn't a matter of not wanting to hurt either one. Instead, she doesn't want the stress and consequences of taking an action. She keeps to the status quo by saying she loved both of them. Tom is triumphant; Gatsby is shocked. Daisy doesn't care.

She tells Gatsby, "You ask too much." In her world of shallow needs, uprooting the materially comfortable life she already has for a light affair is impossible. She just knows she wants to keep her wealth and status; she depends on Tom for that. Gatsby may have the money, but he doesn't have the social status of 'old money.'

After reading "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas," discuss the people who walk away in terms of who they are, why the leave, and where they go.

The people who leave Omelas are citizens of the town who cannot accept that their happiness is based on the child's suffering.  

The people who leave Omleas are regular townspeople. They range from being "one of the adolescent girls or boys" to "a man or woman much older." They have seen the child whose suffering is the reason behind their happiness:

They know that if the wretched one were not there sniveling in the dark, the other one, the flute-player, could make no joyful music as the young riders line up in their beauty for the race in the sunlight of the first morning of summer.

The difference between these people and those who stay is that what they have seen has left a mark that cannot be washed away.

The narrator says these people simply leave. They have left because they know the truth about living in Omelas. They make no attempt to retrieve the child or fight for the child's rights.  Rather, the narrator says they simply "go out into the street, and walk down the street alone."  They leave the city, walking to an unknown place that is "ahead in the darkness and they do not come back."  Their destination is unclear.  However, the ones who walk away know where they are going, even if the narrator and us do not.