What adages are used about the lottery in "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson?

An adage is used when Mr. Adams speaks with Old Man Warner, who has participated in the lottery 77 times. Mr. Adams informs Old Man Warner that the community in the northern village is considering quitting the lottery. Old Man Warner expresses his displeasure at the remark by referring to the people in the north as a pack of crazy fools. He further warns that the people would not stop at quitting the lottery, but...

An adage is used when Mr. Adams speaks with Old Man Warner, who has participated in the lottery 77 times. Mr. Adams informs Old Man Warner that the community in the northern village is considering quitting the lottery. Old Man Warner expresses his displeasure at the remark by referring to the people in the north as a pack of crazy fools. He further warns that the people would not stop at quitting the lottery, but will also regress to primordial lifestyles. Old Man Warner adds that the people would also stop working and tells Mr. Adams of an old saying that stated "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon." The adage suggests the community associates their farms’ productivity with the events of the lottery, which is a human sacrifice conducted by the community.

What was the inciting incident in the play Proof?

The "inciting incident" is the moment or occurrence that starts a problem in a work of literature or play (or in a movie). Up until that point, the audience has been introduced to the backstory, and the "inciting incident" brings up the dilemma that is going to be resolved in the rest of the work.

In the play Proof,the inciting incident takes place in Act I, Scene IV when Catherine, after kissing Hal, gives...

The "inciting incident" is the moment or occurrence that starts a problem in a work of literature or play (or in a movie). Up until that point, the audience has been introduced to the backstory, and the "inciting incident" brings up the dilemma that is going to be resolved in the rest of the work.

In the play Proof, the inciting incident takes place in Act I, Scene IV when Catherine, after kissing Hal, gives him the key to her father's desk. In the desk, Hal finds a proof, and he says, "It looks like it proves a theorem...a mathematical theorem about prime numbers, something mathematicians have been trying to prove since...since there were mathematicians, basically." Hal is not only excited about the proof because it is found after the death of Robert, Catherine's father and a famous mathematician, but also because the proof was written at a time when most people assumed Robert was far too mentally ill to be productive professionally. Just as the curtain drops to mark the end of Act I, Catherine says of the proof, "I didn't find it. I wrote it." This marks the inciting incident because there is no real proof that Catherine wrote the proof, pun intended.

Act II begins with a flashback to Robert and Catherine, and then, in Act II, Scene II, the plot continues to revolve around whether Catherine wrote the proof or not. Hal does not believe that Catherine had the capacity to write the proof, and Claire, Catherine's sister, thinks the handwriting in the proof is her father's. At the end of the play, Catherine says that even though Hal believes that the proof uses several new mathematical techniques that Robert, who was suffering from mental illness, couldn't have known, "it doesn't prove anything." Hal and Catherine begin working on the proof, collaborating, which is the greatest amount of proof Hal and the rest of the world are ever going to get that Catherine is the author of the proof. This process seems to resolve the questions that were brought up in the inciting incident to some degree. 

How can a make a thesis statement out of these four points? My first language and how I learned it New languages learned when and how I use...

Your thesis statement provides the reader of your essay with an overall statement about what you will be proving. It could be something along the lines of, "I learned Spanish as my first language by growing up in Colombia, and when I learned English to attend high school and college in the United States, my knowledge of Spanish grammar, the differences between spoken and written language in Spanish, and my ability to write in Spanish...

Your thesis statement provides the reader of your essay with an overall statement about what you will be proving. It could be something along the lines of, "I learned Spanish as my first language by growing up in Colombia, and when I learned English to attend high school and college in the United States, my knowledge of Spanish grammar, the differences between spoken and written language in Spanish, and my ability to write in Spanish all helped me learn English." The first paragraph in your essay would include more background about your first language and when and why you started to learn English.

Each later paragraph in your essay would examine in further depth one of these points. For example, in your first body paragraph (which comes after the introduction), the topic sentence might be something along the lines of, "My knowledge of Spanish grammar helped me learn English." The topic sentence contains the main idea that you will discuss in that paragraph--in this case the reason why learning your first language (or languages) helped you learn other languages. The paragraph would flesh out this idea and include more details about how learning grammar in your first language helped you learn English grammar.

The next body paragraph might begin with the topic sentence "Learning the differences between spoken and written language in Spanish when I was younger helped me understand these differences in English." The rest of the paragraph would include details about this point. The third body paragraph might start with the topic sentence, "My knowledge of how to write in Spanish helped me learn to write in English," and then the rest of the paragraph would expand on this idea and provide details to support it. Finally, you would conclude your essay with a concluding paragraph that restates your main idea.

Analyze the first two paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence and highlight two ideas from the text that contextualize the thoughts about...

The first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence has to do with the ideas of inalienable rights or natural rights, a core idea of the Enlightenment. Inalienable rights, referred to in the first paragraph of the document as "the laws of nature and Nature's God," are the rights people are born with that cannot be taken away. This is also the core of liberalism, the philosophy that people are entitled to certain liberties. 

...

The first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence has to do with the ideas of inalienable rights or natural rights, a core idea of the Enlightenment. Inalienable rights, referred to in the first paragraph of the document as "the laws of nature and Nature's God," are the rights people are born with that cannot be taken away. This is also the core of liberalism, the philosophy that people are entitled to certain liberties. 

In the second paragraph, Jefferson, the author of the document, refers to these rights as "unalienable," and describes them as "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." He then writes that governments derive their right to exist from those they govern. This is a reference to the social contract, another Enlightenment idea, which states that governments must have the consent of those they govern. It also states that people can overthrow their government and start a revolution when they do not give this consent to their government, because the government has not protected their inalienable or natural rights. 

In Haruki Murakami's "TV People," there are many small parts to the story. The part I had the most trouble with was the last half of the story. The...

Interesting question! The dream sequence appears to be another metaphor for the author's detached reality. The ambiguous story-line allows us to interpret this surreal phenomenon on a few levels.

First, the room in the author's dream is populated by dead people who have been turned to stone. In the dream, the windows are broken, and the author feels the chill of the air. He stands to give a statement to his lifeless colleagues but doesn't know what he's talking about, merely that he must keep talking in order to live. There is animated fear and anxiety in his tone; we question whether he is delirious or in the throes of schizophrenic hysteria.

The stone figures are significant in that they appear to be a metaphor for the author's alienation from society; he experiences neither emotional connection to his colleagues or his own wife. Earlier in the story, the author relates how he and his wife often go days without speaking to each other when work obligations require their dedicated attention. Later, he relates how his colleague ignores him when he mentions the TV People. 

At home, the author's wife is consumed by her penchant for neatness; her magazines must be arranged in a certain order and be placed in a designated area. The author suggests that his wife becomes unreasonably angry when her magazines are disturbed in any way. In light of the narrative, it appears as if the wife's obsessive compulsive behavior mirrors that of the author's: he's just as obsessive about the TV People and his own need for professional relevance as she is about the arrangement of her magazines. However, just as his stone colleagues and wife can't "hear" what he's saying to them, neither can the TV People. The author is disconnected from his colleagues, his wife, and even the seemingly imaginary characters that assault his consciousness.

The stone people in the dream sequence is a metaphor for the author's lonely and detached existence. It may also be a metaphor for his (and his wife's) inability to face the emotional devastation of living such a life. Both bury themselves in meaningless conversation and repetitive tasks on a daily basis. Their lives are as devoid of warmth as the cold winds that blow in through the broken windows in the dream sequence. On another level, the stone people and TV People are similar in that they represent the enigma of different realities.

The TV People exist on a different plane, perhaps reinforcing the idea that technology and media can distort one's reality. At the same time, the stone people are totally incapable of relating to the author's words; he might as well be speaking gibberish to them, on account of the fact that they are dead. So, the stone people are symbols (much like the TV People), reinforcing the theme of detached reality in a world powered by technology and circumscribed by a corporate dystopia.

Why do some people tend to vote more than others? And what influences their choice of candidate?

According to the Pew Research Center (see the link below), people who vote intermittently are less likely to be married than those who vote regularly. They are also more likely to feel distrustful towards others, and they express less (not more) anger at the government. Intermittent voters, who don't always vote in elections, are less likely to know much about the candidates, and they report feeling bored about what goes on in politics. These voters...

According to the Pew Research Center (see the link below), people who vote intermittently are less likely to be married than those who vote regularly. They are also more likely to feel distrustful towards others, and they express less (not more) anger at the government. Intermittent voters, who don't always vote in elections, are less likely to know much about the candidates, and they report feeling bored about what goes on in politics. These voters are the most likely group to swing between candidates, and they tend to be less educated and less affluent than regular voters. People who don't vote at all or who are not even registered to vote, according to the Pew Research Center, don't believe that voting will make a difference and don't feel guilty about not voting. 

Who people vote for is influenced by several factors, including the voter's background. For example, African-Americans tend to vote for Democrats, and more women than men voted for Hillary Clinton. When John Kennedy, who was Catholic, ran for President, a majority of Catholic voters cast their votes for him. In addition, people's party identifications influence who they vote for, as people who are registered as Democrats tend to vote Democratic, while those registered as Republicans vote Republican. In addition, a voter's ideology affects their voting, as those who are more liberal tend to vote for more liberal candidates, while those who are more conservative seek out conservative candidate. Finally, people evaluate a candidate's personal characteristics, and their perceptions of the candidates' honesty and other personality factors influence their voting.  

In "All Summer in a Day," what are Margot's strengths and weaknesses?

Margot's strength is in her sensitivity and her ability to be true to herself. She remembers  a better world on earth, where the sun often shone, and is strong in her dislike of Venus, where the sun only comes out once every seven years. She shows integrity in her loyalty to earth.

She reveals her artistic sensitivity when she writes a poem about the sun: "I think the sun is a flower, / That blooms...

Margot's strength is in her sensitivity and her ability to be true to herself. She remembers  a better world on earth, where the sun often shone, and is strong in her dislike of Venus, where the sun only comes out once every seven years. She shows integrity in her loyalty to earth.

She reveals her artistic sensitivity when she writes a poem about the sun: "I think the sun is a flower, / That blooms for just one hour." One of the boys in the class protests that she couldn't have written that. 

Because she is true to herself, she tries to communicate her memories of the sun to the other children, comparing it to a fire in the stove and a penny. Because she is nonconformist, she won't join the other children in their games. She doesn't pretend to like things she doesn't like.

As with most people, her strengths are also her weaknesses. Her integrity--being true to herself--includes a lack of social skills: she doesn't seem to realize how much she is alienating the other children and acting as if she is superior for having seen the sun. Even though she was true to herself in rejecting Mars, she might have made some attempt to relate better to the other children, though her depression might have made that impossible.

Her sensitivity is also a weakness: it means she writes nice poetry and has vivid and poetic memories of the sun, but it also leads her to scream and not want to take a shower. It causes her parents to think of leaving Venus early, despite the money they would lose.