How did the United States become an imperial power?

The United States became an imperial power at the end of the 1890s. The United States wanted to gain colonies around the world. We knew we probably were going to have to go to war to do this. When we learned about how poorly the Spanish were treating the people of Cuba, we wanted to help the people of Cuba. After a series of incidents, we went to war against Spain in 1898. As a result of the Spanish-American War, we got Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines from Spain. We were now a world power.

As we became a world power, we needed to build up our navy. We knew that world powers must be able to protect their trade. We also knew that world powers needed bases around the world where their ships could stop, resupply, and refuel. Thus, the Great White Fleet was built to develop and show off our naval power. This fleet was used to help Panama become independent. It also sailed around the world to show the military might of the United States.

By defeating Spain in the Spanish-American War and by building up our navy, the United States became a world power in the 1890s.

Compare and contrast Nora Helmer from A Doll's House and Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye. How are their loss of innocence and gaining...

Both Nora and Holden find themselves in a society with rules that can be confusing, self-contradictory, and often harsh. Both have a keen sense of justice, though in Nora's case, she begins the play naively expecting to receive justice, whereas Holden already realizes that in most cases nobody is going to right the injustice. 

Nora's journey is one of slowly realizing that her society, and even her husband, are not going to support her in the financial decisions she has made to pay for his needed health care (to "save his life"). When she finally realizes that she can't hope for protection or justice from the people around her, she abruptly decides to leave her family (her husband, in particular) and live on her own. We don't discover how this turns out for her, but clearly she does not feel that she can remain in a relationship that does not deliver on its promises—that is, as Holden would say, "phony."

Holden's case is different. He begins the book having already lost his innocence due to events he has witnessed—his brother's death, the death by bullying of a fellow student, and the inability of adults to right the wrongs that Holden sees. He has already concluded (for the most part) that he can't count on the people in his life. Holden sees no obvious decisive action that he can take, as there was for Nora. As a result, Holden spends most of the book trying to self-medicate to dull the pain of this depressing realization. He self-medicates with alcohol, cigarettes, and interactions with a variety of friends and strangers.

Like Nora, Holden does consider running away. He considers starting a family in the woods with Sally, and later he actually plans to run away "out West" to find work on a ranch somewhere. He changes his mind about this plan when he finds out how much it would hurt his sister Phoebe, who is one of the people he most cares about and for whom he can still prevent some loss.

These two characters' trajectories are very different. Nora starts out basically innocent, loses her innocence, and experiences a moment of clarity where she reacts to what she has learned and makes a break with her past life. Holden starts out cynical, remains cynical, and tries to make a break a number of times, only to find that none of his attempts are a really good solution.  

It's interesting that for both characters, their awareness of the flaws and limitations of those who should be protecting them produces restlessness. In Nora's case, it's a desperate, defiant urge to get away. In Holden's case, he is constantly trying to get away. He has dropped out of many schools. In the course of the book, he keeps going from one place to another—school to hotel to ice rink to his house to teacher's house to museum—each time thinking the next place will be better. It never is, and there is a chance that Nora's striking out on her own may not turn out well, either. Nevertheless, this restlessness is something the two characters have in common.

In which situation is the force applied to a baseball the greatest? A. As the pitcher is winding up to throw it B. As it is being thrown...

Without actually testing the forces being applied, we have to generalize and assume a few things; for example, it's safe to say that the question is asking about the forces acting on the baseball along a vector that will propel it towards its target. If we were being more thorough, we would have to acknowledge that multiple force vectors are acting on the ball during the windup, and these combined vectors may actually result in a great amount of applied force(s) during the windup than the release. However, without knowing all of the mechanisms of action taking place during the windup, this is speculation. We should focus instead on the target-vectored force, which means the answer is B.

We can be pretty assured that, if the pitcher released the ball at some time during the windup (answer A) then the ball would not be released with anywhere near the velocity that it does when released at B. This is how we know that a greater force is being applied. We also know that the force being applied between times A and B is increasing, basically because the pitcher's arm has to "catch up" with the ball in order to continue propelling it forward, otherwise the ball would leave the pitcher's hand prematurely. 

What passages develop irony surrounding Boo Radley in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird?

In To Kill a Mockingbird, author Harper Lee frequently uses dramatic irony to develop the plot and themes concerning Arthur (Boo) Radley. Dramatic irony is a contrast between a character's limited understanding of a situation and the audience's greater understanding. It is developed when a character has a much lesser understanding of a situation than the audience does.

Examples of dramatic irony being created to develop plot and themes concerning Arthur Radley are seen in the small things he does for the children to show he cares. Due to these expressions of care, the reader knows Arthur is not the dangerous monster the children believe him to be but rather a very kind and caring person. The reader is especially faster to understand Arthur's real nature than Scout is due to her age.

One specific example is the moment she discovers she is wearing a woolen blanket wrapped around herself the night Miss Maudie's house catches fire. Jem is very quick to reach the conclusion that it must have been Arthur who covered Scout up and to understand it was an act of kindness; however, Scout, being young, is very slow to realize who covered her up, and her emotional response is nothing but sheer terror. We see the slowness in her realization when she responds, "Thank who?," to her father's comment that she may someday be able to "thank him for covering her up" (Ch. 8). We further see Scout's current inability to see Arthur as a benevolent person when she responds in terror to Jem's teasing, as we see in the following narration:

My stomach turned to water and I nearly threw up when Jem held out the blanket and crept toward me. "He sneaked out of the house--turn 'round--sneaked up, an' went like this!" (Ch. 8)

Since the passage above shows that Scout clearly has a far lesser understanding of what kind of person Arthur Radley is than the reader has at this point in the story, we can see that author Lee is using this incident and passage to develop dramatic irony.

What are two incidents that reveal how other members of society treat Walter Mitty and convey their attitudes toward him in "The Secret Life of...

Two incidents that reveal the treatment of Walter Mitty by other members of society and their attitudes toward him are the following:

1. Mitty takes his car to a garage in order to have the snow chains removed. Walter feels that the attendant is "so cocky" as he orders Walter out of the car so that he can properly place it in the designated spot.


2. While Mitty is walking on the sidewalk past the buildings of Waterbury, a woman passes him and starts to laugh. "That man said 'Puppy biscuit' to himself." She thinks Walter is saying nonsensical things to himself.

• Incident #1

Walter Mitty is daydreaming after his wife has gone to the hairdresser and he is on the way to an automotive garage to have the winter chains taken off his car's tires. He is not aware of what he is doing as he pulls into the garage. The attendant shouts at him, "Back it up, Mac! Look out for that Buick!" Startled, Mitty slams on the brakes. "Wrong lane, Mac," calls the attendant this time. Finally, he tells Mitty to just leave his car where it is and he will put the car away. Quickly, the attendant jumps in and backs up the car with "insolent skill."

• Incident #2

As Walter Mitty walks out of the garage, he reminds himself of "overshoes" and goes into a shoe store. After purchasing the overshoes, he treks along the street toward the A & P grocery store, and this time he quietly says to himself, "Puppy biscuit" in order to remind himself. However, a woman hears him talking to himself, and she laughs aloud. She tells her companion that the man who just passed "...said 'Puppy Biscuit' to himself."

It is apparent that in real life Walter Mitty seems ridiculous to others. However, in his daydreams, Mitty is a hero, "Undefeated, inscrutable to the last."

What was the response of the other world leaders to the actions in the 1930s of the leaders of totalitarian governments? Was it effective?

In the 1930s, the leaders of totalitarian governments became very aggressive. Germany, Japan, and Italy began to take land from other countries. In many instances, the leaders of other countries did very little about these actions.

The leaders of Germany, Japan, and Italy began to take land in the 1930s. In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria. In 1937, Japan invaded China. In the 1930s, Germany violated the Treaty of Versailles by rebuilding its military. In 1936, Germany moved its military into the Rhineland. This action also violated the Treaty of Versailles. In 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia. The leaders of other countries didn’t take actions to deal with these acts of aggression.

The leaders of other countries had reasons for not acting. Much of the world was dealing with the Great Depression. The leaders needed to deal with that crisis before dealing with the aggressive actions of the leaders of Germany, Japan, and Italy. There was also a fear that taking actions to stop this aggression could lead to war. Since World War I ended in 1918, the leaders of these countries didn’t want to risk a second world war in the 1930s.

In 1938, Germany annexed Austria. When Hitler announced he wanted to annex the Sudetenland in 1938, the British and French leaders met with him to discuss this request. Hitler wanted to annex this part of Czechoslovakia because many Germans lived here. The leaders of Great Britain and France made an agreement, called the Munich Pact, which appeased Hitler. Hitler got this land in return for making a promise to take no more land. Hitler later broke this promise when he took the rest of Czechoslovakia in 1939. The leaders of Great Britain and France said that if Hitler took any additional land, it would lead to war. After Hitler invaded Poland in September 1939, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany, starting World War II.

The actions of the leaders of other countries weren’t successful in dealing with the aggressive actions of the leaders of Germany, Japan, and Italy. Their inaction didn't prevent war from occurring.

Why is the killing of the sow in Lord of the Flies described in a place of such great beauty?

The killing of the sow in Lord of the Flies is done in a place of great beauty to provide a juxtaposition between the violent feral nature of the children, and humans in general, with the peaceful world of nature. One of the major themes within William Golding’s text is that humanity by its very nature is cruel and violent. If the author presented the killing in a different setting the reader may dismiss the act as just one of survival, but by having it occur in contrast with the beauty of nature, Golding presents it as an act of violence. Even Jacks obsession with killing the boars on the island goes beyond a need for survival; he hunts and kills as a statement of his power over nature and over the other boys.