What groups of people were persecuted during the Holocaust?

When we talk about the Holocaust, we are generally talking about the time when the Nazis killed millions of Jews.  However, Jews were not the only group that the Nazis killed.  Instead, they targeted other groups that they thought were inferior and/or harmful.

The Nazis believed that they, the Aryan people, were superior to all others.  The Jews were one of the groups that they felt were inferior.  However, they also believed that other groups were below them.  They felt that Slavs were inferior and were, by their proximity, a major danger.  Therefore, they killed many Poles, Ukrainians, and Russians even outside of those who were killed in battle.  The other ethnic group that the Nazis targeted was Gypsies.  The Nazis killed as many as 500,000 Gypsies.

Outside of “inferior” ethnic groups, the Nazis also targeted people based on their religious or political beliefs.  They killed Jehovah’s Witnesses.  They killed communists, socialists, Social Democrats, and Freemasons.  They killed people from these groups because they disagreed with their politics or because they disliked the fact that they were loyal to authorities other than the Nazis.

Finally, the Nazis killed other people that they thought were harmful to their society.  They killed homosexuals.  They also killed mentally disabled people.  These people, they believed, would weaken their society either through harming its moral fiber or by reducing the quality of its gene pool.

While the Holocaust was mainly about the Nazis killing Jews, there were also other groups that the Nazis targeted for extermination.

Who is Tom Buchanan married to?

Tom Buchanan is married to Daisy Fay Buchanan. She is the second cousin once removed of the narrator, Nick Carraway. In chapter four, Jordan Baker says Daisy was "the most popular of all the young girls in Louisville" back in 1917 when Daisy was eighteen. She dated soldiers training at Camp Taylor, which is where she met lieutenant Jay Gatsby before he went to Europe. She was a debutante after WWII ended, and after a broken engagement to an unnamed man, married Tom Buchanan, though she tried to back out of the wedding when Jay Gatsby wrote her a letter saying he was going to be delayed returning from war. She and Tom have a three-year-old daughter, and their marriage is unstable because she knows that Tom is unfaithful.

How old was Fleance when Banquo was killed in Shakespeare's Macbeth?

Fleance was young enough to be called “boy” when Banquo was killed.

Although Fleance’s exact age is not mentioned, Banquo does call him boy.  Macbeth has no qualms about killing him, but that doesn’t mean anything.  He kills Macduff’s wife, son and entire family.  Fleance is a danger to Macbeth because the witches’ prophecies mention Banquo’s sons.

Macbeth seems to be particularly interested in the prophecy about Banquo’s sons, even before he kills Duncan.

MACBETH

Your children shall be kings.

BANQUO

You shall be king. (Act 1, Scene 3)

After killing the king, Macbeth decides that Banquo and Fleance are too dangerous to be left alive.  Banquo is a double threat because he knows about the prophecies and might suspect that Macbeth killed Duncan, and because his sons are supposed to be king.  Fleance, already Banquo’s son, is a threat too because he might someday become the king.  If Macbeth kills them both he eliminates both threats.

The first time Fleance is introduced, Banquo calls him “boy.”

BANQUO

How goes the night, boy?

FLEANCE

The moon is down; I have not heard the clock.

BANQUO

And she goes down at twelve. (Act 2, Scene 1) 

When Macbeth is giving instructions to the murderers, he says that it is important that both Banquo and Fleance be killed.  He does not say how old Fleance is, but he says that his absence “is no less material” that his father’s, so it is possible that he actually is rather young, so that to most people he seems insignificant.  To Macbeth he is important because he might one day be king, so he has to die.

How do the Little Rock Nine connect to the Cold War?

The standoff at Little Rock Central High School occurred in 1957, at the height of the Cold War. To understand its significance, it is important to understand that the Cold War was as much an ideological conflict as a military one. The United States wanted to project an image of itself as a beacon of freedom, one which they hoped the world would see as fundamentally opposed to Soviet communism. Racial segregation in the American South was, in this context, a real embarrassment to President Dwight Eisenhower and his successors. When angry crowds gathered to stop the planned integration of Little Rock Central, news cameras sent images around the world that undermined the image that American policymakers hoped to project. Eisenhower, recognizing the damage that these images were doing to American prestige abroad, made the decision to nationalize the Arkansas National Guard (which had been used by governor Orval Faubus to keep the students out) and to send in the United States Army to restore order and enforce a federal court order requiring integration. Civil rights leaders were fully aware of the issues raised by the Cold War, and sought to use the tension between American rhetoric and Jim Crow realities to create momentum for change.

Why do the county men return after Cora has told them to leave in "Blues Ain't No Mockingbird"?

The men who are filming for the county return after Cora Cain asks them to leave because they have no respect for her.

When she first spots the two men from the county, Granny, as Cora is referred to by the narrator, instructs the grandchildren to tell the men to "get away from here with that camera." Instead of complying, these men move onto the Cain property, and Granny hurries out the screen door onto her steps. Without even addressing her politely, one of the men says,

"We thought we'd get a shot or two of the house and everything and then--"

But, Granny cuts him off, "Good mornin'," and she smiles with no pleasure. Only then does one man say "Good mornin'." Still, the man with the camera addresses her in a deprecatory manner as he calls her "Aunty," a term used by whites to elderly blacks rather than the more respectful "Ma'am." While the other approaches in an attempt to ameliorate the relationship between Granny and the camera man, his use of "ladies" and "gentlemen" and his explanation does not appease Granny, either. Then, when Camera man says, "Now, Aunty..." Granny becomes angrier: "Your mama and I are not related." Again the other man, called "Smilin' man" by the narrator, tries to smooth things over. But, when Granny says nothing, the men back away and walk down to the meadow.

Nevertheless, these men persist in their filming, and move closer when they spot Grandaddy Cain with a chicken hawk that he nails to the shed in order to attract its mate and slay both the predators who have killed his chickens. However, as they creep forward, the size and force of Granddaddy Cain intimidates these men from the county, especially as he holds his mammoth hand out for the camera. Camera man is too afraid not to give it to Mr. Cain.

And the hand don't even drop with the weight, just the fingers move, curl up around the machine....Then Grandaddy's other hand flies up like a sudden and gentle bird, slaps down fast on top of the camera and lifts off half like it was a calabash cut for sharing.

It is with this show of force and strength that the Cains are rid of the two men from the county. Then, when Granddaddy says, "This is our own place," these men finally show a respect born of fear, and "they just back off." 

How does Scout describe Burris Ewell's physical appearance in To Kill a Mockingbird?

Scout describes Burris Wells as the "filthiest human I had ever seen."

On her first day of school, Scout has several experiences which she certainly has not anticipated. One of these is her introduction to Burris Ewell, who Scout first describes as "hulking." His presence frightens Miss Caroline, Scout's teacher, not so much because he is larger than the other children, but because she has seen lice moving in his hair.

After Chuck Little calms Scout's teacher, Miss Caroline instructs Burris to wash his hair with lye and treat his scalp with kerosene, not realizing that neither item is probably available at the Ewell home. When Burris stands, Miss Caroline notices how dirty he is. Scout describes him as having a grey neck, hands that appear rusty with fingernails black with dirt, and a face with only a "fist-sized clean space" on it. Shocked by this physical condition, Miss Caroline urges him to bathe before returning to school the next day.

The boy laughed rudely. "You ain't sendin' me home, missus. I was on the verge of leavin'—I done done my time for the year."

His statement is clarified for Miss Caroline when one of the older members of Scout's class explains that the Ewells only come on the first day because the truant officer threatens them with the sheriff in order to get them to attend.

Explain how the theme of bullying develops over the course of the story "All Summer in a Day."

From early in the story, we learn that the main character, Margot, is different from the other children. In our first introduction to her, she "stood apart from them, these children ..." We are then told a second time, "she stood alone." We also learn that she is "frail." It seems habitual to bully her, for the child William, when she doesn't answer his question about what she is looking at, tells her to "speak when you are spoken to" and shoves her. She doesn't respond or get upset, suggesting she is used to being treated this way. We then learn that she is an outsider who won't play with the other children in the tunnels of their underground home. We are told she is "different."  Finally, we learn that she remembers the sun, because while the rest of the children came to Venus at age two, she was older when she arrived. She is also adjusting so poorly to Venus that her parents are thinking of heading back to Earth. The other children resent her:

And so, the children hated her for all these reasons of big and little consequence. They hated her pale snow face, her waiting silence, her thinness, and her possible future.

We may be horrified, but we can't be too surprised at the biggest act of bullying in the story, when they lock her in the dark closet just as the sun is coming out.