What is the initial situation in the story, "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" by Arthur Conan Doyle? What is the conflict, what are the...

Helen Stoner comes to see Sherlock Holmes very early in the morning. She is terrified because she thinks her life is in danger. She tells Holmes and Watson a long back-story which includes an account of the mysterious death of her twin sister Julia Stoner two years ago. Julia was engaged to be married, but she died an agonizing death which was never explained because she had been sleeping in a locked room. Now Helen has been moved into that room by her violent stepfather, Dr. Roylott, under the pretext of having repairs done on her own bedroom. On the second night she was awakened by the sound of a low whistle, which was the same as the sound Julia had described to her shortly before her death. This is what frightened Helen into taking the train to London to consult Holmes.

After Helen leaves, the ferocious, half-mad Dr. Roylott bursts into Holmes and Watson's sitting room and demands to know what Helen has been telling them. Holmes cooly refuses.

Holmes chuckled heartily. “Your conversation is most entertaining,” said he. “When you go out close the door, for there is a decided draught.”

“I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here.” He stepped swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with his huge brown hands.

This is the only time that Dr. Roylott will appear alive. But his menace hangs over the remainder of the story. The author's purpose in dramatising his visit is to establish that the conflict in the story is one of man against man, Holmes against Roylott.

Before going down to Stoke Moran to examine the crumbling old building, Holmes does some research and learns that, under the terms of his deceased wife's will, Roylott is legally bound to give either girl an annual payment of one-third of the income from the large sum he inherited from their mother. Julia died shortly before she was to be married--and now Helen has become engaged. Roylott is obviously a strong suspect for the murder of Julia, and now appears to be planning to murder Helen. As is often the case in Sherlock Holmes tales, the main motivating factor turns out to be money. But the big question in this so-called "locked room murder mystery" is how anyone could have killed Julia when her door was locked and her windows bolted. This mystery provides most of the complications involved in resolving the case. Many of the complications date back two years to the time of Julia's death.

Holmes later explains his observations and deductions to Watson:

My attention was speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was furnished with a supply of creatures from India [...]

Holmes and Watson spend the night in the bedroom next to Dr. Roylott's. At around three o'clock in the morning, they hear the low whistle Helen had described. 

Holmes sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with his cane at the bell-pull.

This is the climax. Holmes drives the snake back up the bell-rope and through the ventilator, where it bites Dr. Roylott and kills him instantly. Thus the conflict between Holmes and Roylott is resolved by the death of the mad doctor.

In Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick, do you believe Max’s dad when he says, “I know what they told you. It’s all a big lie, you...

Right before Max is kidnapped by his father, Killer Kane says the following to his son on Christmas Eve:

“I know what they told you. It’s all a big lie, you understand? I never killed anybody, and that’s the truth, so help me God” (101).

There is certainly an element of hope behind hearing these words. Many convicts say that they are innocent, but the evidence says otherwise. For children like Max, who must endure life without parents because of incarceration, it would be very tempting to want to believe that his father is not guilty. There are so many red flags, though, that point to the fact that Killer Kane isn't telling the truth. First, there's the name, "Killer Kane." People don't get nicknames like that for no reason. Second, he's been in jail for at least ten years which means that he was convicted of the crime they say he committed. Just because he claims it isn't true does not take away the fact that a jury must have found him guilty, which is valid evidence that he did kill someone. Finally, he's in the act of committing a crime by kidnapping his own son out of bed in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve. Good guys and heroes don't need to use the back door to get what they want; bad guys do that. 

In Romeo and Juliet, what does "From ancient grudge break to new mutiny" mean?

In the prologue of the play, the Chorus describes what is going to happen in a short summary of events, including that the play is going to end with the deaths of two lovers.  In part, they say, "From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, / Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean."  In so saying, the Chorus refers to the feud between two respected families of Verona, the city where this play takes place; the families' grudge against each other is old and has lasted quite a long time.  Further, in these lines, the Chorus says that this ancient feud will erupt in new violence, violence that will result in the spilling of blood and the shared guilt of both families.  The Chorus goes on to say that the children of these families will fall in love and kill themselves, and peace will only come to exist once these families' greatest joys -- their children -- are gone.

How might the industrial revolution have affected William Blake's poem "The Tyger"?

The Industrial Revolution was a historical period that began in Great Britain in the 18th century. During this time, technological advances initiated the transition from a primarily agrarian economy to an economy based on manufacturing and advanced machinery. Factories, the internal-combustion engine, and the use of coal as an energy source were important features of the Industrial Revolution.

The influence of the Industrial Revolution can definitely be seen in William Blake's "The Tyger." For example, take a look at the fourth stanza:

What the hammer? what the chain, 

In what furnace was thy brain? 

What the anvil? what dread grasp, 

Dare its deadly terrors clasp! (13-16)

Notice Blake's industrialized description. Rather than developing organically, Blake's tiger is constructed with a hammer, chain, furnace, and anvil. In this section of the poem, Blake seems to be conceiving of the creation of life as an industrialized process, one that has moved from the natural world to the factory. Moreover, by defining this process as "dread" and "deadly," Blake condemns this new, industrial method of creation. All in all, by describing the creation of life as part of the rise of manufacturing, Blake illustrates the terrifyingly unnatural nature of industrial production. 

How did westward expansion impact the United States economically?

Westward expansion helped the US economy. The main way in which it did this was by giving the US access to more resources than it previously had.

One of the major factors that affects an economy is the amount of resources that it has available.  When the US expanded to the west, it gained access to more resources.  It gained access to the “bread basket” of the Great Plains. It gained access to the silver and gold of California, Nevada, and other places.  It gained access to the rangelands of Texas where cattle could be raised. In addition, westward expansion, opened up opportunities for new immigrants.   Expansion opened up farmland for Scandinavian immigrants. It opened up jobs on the railroads for Irish and Chinese immigrants. In these ways, westward expansion helped the US economy grow.

How is Boo represented as an innocent mockingbird in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird?

Throughout the novel, mockingbirds represent innocent individuals who do nothing but help others. Boo Radley is considered a symbolic mockingbird for a variety of reasons. He is essentially a harmless person who shows compassion for the Finch children. He selflessly gives them gifts via the knothole in his tree and risks his life by defending them during Bob Ewell's vicious attack. Unfortunately, Boo is unable to protect himself from the negative rumors surrounding him. Similar to mockingbirds that cannot defend themselves from children shooting them, Boo is defenseless against the prejudiced community and his radically religious family. In Chapter 30, Sheriff Tate tells Atticus that it would be a sin to tell the community about Boo's heroics because it would bring unwanted attention to Boo, which would be harmful because he is so shy. When Atticus asks Scout if she understands, Scout says, "Well, it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?" (Lee 170). Scout's comment metaphorically applies Atticus' lesson to Boo's situation, and reveals the connection between Boo's innocent nature and mockingbirds.

How does Owen use the sonnet form to effectively reflect on the losses of WW1?

Wilfred Owen uses the Italian sonnet form to reflect the losses of World War I by employing the first eight lines (or octave) to address the terrible cost of the loss of young men's lives in war and the last eight lines (or sestet) to address the effects of those losses on the men's homes and loved ones. Typically, with this form, the first eight lines introduce a problem or even a difficult question; then the last six lines resolve the problem or answer the question. One way in which Owen effectively uses this form to demonstrate the awful cost of war, especially this war in comparison with wars that came before, is that, while he introduces a problem in the octave, he does not solve the problem with the sestet. He cannot "solve" the problem of war because there is no solution. One of the messages of the poem, then, is that the loss of life in war can never be solved, can never be fixed. Once people have lost their lives, there is simply no way to redeem or mitigate that loss. Instead of attempting to solve the problem of war, the sestet only presents more problems and losses, compounding those presented by the octave.