Please provide a critical analysis of W. Somerset Maugham's short story "Salvatore."

The author frames the story such that we are well aware of the narrator's presence. In this way, we are reminded of the oral tradition, the style of old-fashioned storytelling. What is special about this narrator is that they seem to be somewhat unsure about the outcome of this storytelling: "I wonder if I can do it." This tactic really grabs the attention of the reader; we are eager to see what the narrator so earnestly wishes to accomplish and if they are able.

At the very end of the story, the narrator says the ultimate purpose of this tale is to sketch a picture of "Goodness. Just goodness." Did it work? Was the author able to do it? Moreover, what is "goodness"?

Salvatore's life is far from perfect. A number of events thwart his goals and disorient him: being drafted into the military, falling ill, losing his first love, and essentially committing to a life unlike the one he imagined for himself. Yet Salvatore seems to understand the futility of allotting blame for these unfortunate events. He seems to acknowledge that a life is simply comprised of unexpected twists and turns. In short, he bears no bitterness about what many would consider bitter circumstances. As a result, he can rejoice in the beauty of his children and the small pleasures of life. When all is said and done, Salvatore seems happy, and the reader can feel happy for him. The author has made us feel the core of "goodness" which runs through Salvatore and how it resulted in a satisfying life, if not a perfect one.

Ostensibly the author considers "goodness" to be of great importance. So what does goodness look like? Salvatore is at times scared, sick, uncertain, rejected, and child-like, yet none of these qualities diminish him in our eyes. How is this? It is because Salvatore possesses "a quality which is the rarest, the most precious and the loveliest that anyone can have." Salvatore loves deeply and is kind and fair even in the face of adversity and pain:

Often his rheumatism prevented him from doing anything at all and then he would lie about the beach, smoking cigarettes, with a pleasant word for everyone notwithstanding the pain that racked his limbs.

This determination to be kind, loving, and "pleasant" regardless of the moment's circumstances, this kind of perseverance, is "goodness."

Tension between the American colonies and England increased during the colonial period. Write a paragraph describing some of the reasons for this...

Tensions between the mother country and the American colonies worsened in the period after 1763, which marked the end of the French-Indian War and marked a British shift away from the British policy of salutary neglect.  The colonists did not feel that Parliament represented their best interests and they felt that they should not have to pay what they considered to be an excessive amount of British taxes.  The colonists also resented the British limiting...

Tensions between the mother country and the American colonies worsened in the period after 1763, which marked the end of the French-Indian War and marked a British shift away from the British policy of salutary neglect.  The colonists did not feel that Parliament represented their best interests and they felt that they should not have to pay what they considered to be an excessive amount of British taxes.  The colonists also resented the British limiting them to the area east of the Appalachian mountains with the Proclamation Line of 1763; the colonists did not feel as though the Native Americans should be rewarded for their contribution to the British war effort.  The colonists also resented the tax collectors and military presence in the colonies.

British officials did not trust the colonists either.  To them, the colonists were scofflaws who did not want to pay their fair share of taxes--after all, the colonists were direct beneficiaries of the redcoat presence in the Americas.  The colonists had long received money from smuggling and dodging navigation acts which benefited the British crown.  British citizens in London paid more in taxes than the British subjects in the Americas.  Also, Parliament claimed that it did not represent anyone directly but rather it spoke for the good of the entire realm.  

Another event that brought the issue to a head was an economic recession in America that took place after the French-Indian War.  The colonists were trying to keep as much money as possible at home, and the British needed to replenish the royal coffers after constant warfare with France.  

The revelers masks and costumes symbolize their attempts to hide from the Red Death. What detail from the story supports this interpretation?

When the striking of the great ebony clock announces midnight, the revelers halt and there is "an uneasy cessation of all things as before," signifying the guests' recognition of the force of time upon their lives. For, despite their masks and costumes intended to disguise them from death, they feel themselves vulnerable to the ravages of time in the announcement of that final hour.

In this very stylized short story, Poe develops the notion that...

When the striking of the great ebony clock announces midnight, the revelers halt and there is "an uneasy cessation of all things as before," signifying the guests' recognition of the force of time upon their lives. For, despite their masks and costumes intended to disguise them from death, they feel themselves vulnerable to the ravages of time in the announcement of that final hour.

In this very stylized short story, Poe develops the notion that art can hold an immutable and timeless beauty, subject to no disease or few other natural forces. For, by retreating to the magnificent abbey, "the creation of the prince's own eccentric yet august taste," Prospero and his guests, who don elaborate costumes, hope to escape death, and in point of fact, life itself. As one critic explains, by placing masks--additional faces, so to speak--they essay to escape life's terminableness by means of heavy cover over the essence of life held in by the skin; namely blood.

When the uninvited guest appears, he mocks this concept of art's infinity by wearing a costume himself. For this reason Prince Prospero's "brow reddened with rage, and he demands, "Who dares?" The enraged prince wants to know who has the effrontery to enter his abbey and who mocks his alternate world of artistic invention that he believes to be invulnerable to the contingencies of reality. However, what the prince, as well as his guests, have mitigated is the persistence of time. The striking of midnight by the clock sends tremors through all at the fortress of art as it serves as a reminder of this persistence and inevitable fate that Time brings to all people. Therefore, when the final hour strikes, the "masque of the Red Death" is revealed and the guests who have "seized the mummer" 

...gasped in unutterable horror at finding the grave cerements and corpse-like mask...untenanted by any tangible form.

This "mummer" whose garb is "dabbled in blood," and whose facial features are all "besprinkled with the scarlet horror," signifies that life's essence spills from the deadly Red Death's presence in the final hour announced by Time's "gigantic ebony clock" despite Prince Prospero's and his guest's artistic efforts to hold it back.

How did the Enlightenment and American revolution influence Thomas Paine's point of view of the French revolution in the book The Rights of Man?

Paine was an outspoken supporter of the French Revolution.  In his work The Rights of Man, he stated that human rights originate in nature and that these cannot be taken away by the government.  To Paine, government only existed to safeguard the rights of the people, and when government ceased to do this, it should be abolished.  Paine's appeal to natural law restates what John Locke pointed out during the Enlightenment, and this thought appears...

Paine was an outspoken supporter of the French Revolution.  In his work The Rights of Man, he stated that human rights originate in nature and that these cannot be taken away by the government.  To Paine, government only existed to safeguard the rights of the people, and when government ceased to do this, it should be abolished.  Paine's appeal to natural law restates what John Locke pointed out during the Enlightenment, and this thought appears again in the Declaration of Independence, one of the key documents of the American Revolution.  

Paine was against hereditary government as it did not always put the most qualified people in office—that is, the people who would best safeguard the liberties of the people.  Paine thought that turnover in government would ensure that the people's rights were safeguarded because leaders who ignored the people could be replaced.  While Paine met with criticism from conservatives such as Edmund Burke, who claimed that government stability was important because it kept the public from being swept away by its passions, Paine was very popular in America with men such as Thomas Jefferson, who put liberties ahead of social order. 

How did Giles stop Mr. Putnam from taking his land? Why did he do it that way?

In the play, Giles Corey stopped anyone from taking his land by refusing to submit a plea to the court when formally presented with the accusations against him.  Elizabeth Proctor tells John at the end of Act Four that "if [Giles] denied the charge they'd hang him surely, and auction out his property," and this would have rendered it available for Mr. Putnam to purchase.  Instead, Giles refused to speak, and so -- under the...

In the play, Giles Corey stopped anyone from taking his land by refusing to submit a plea to the court when formally presented with the accusations against him.  Elizabeth Proctor tells John at the end of Act Four that "if [Giles] denied the charge they'd hang him surely, and auction out his property," and this would have rendered it available for Mr. Putnam to purchase.  Instead, Giles refused to speak, and so -- under the law -- the court could not seize his land, and that land passed to his children.

Giles was not hanged, then, since he could not be convicted.  Instead, the magistrates employed and old English tactic to get him to speak, a strategy called "pressing."  Giles lay on his back on the ground with a great wooden slab atop his chest; heavy stones were then piled on this slab in an attempt to get him to enter a plea.  According to Elizabeth (and history), Giles would not give them what they wanted but would only utter the words "more weight" before he was eventually crushed to death.  By retaining his silence in this way, he was able to save his land.

The house identifies the Teasdale poem as Mrs. McClellan's favorite. What does this suggest about Mrs. McClellan?

In "There Will Come Soft Rains," the fact that Mrs. McClellan has a favorite poem suggests that she is appreciative of the arts and of literature. She is, perhaps, a rather cultured and well-read lady. Moreover, the fact that she appreciates this poem, in particular, also suggests that she enjoys the natural world since this poem is filled with relevant images, like swallows and frogs.

Looking deeper, however, it is ironic that this poem is her...

In "There Will Come Soft Rains," the fact that Mrs. McClellan has a favorite poem suggests that she is appreciative of the arts and of literature. She is, perhaps, a rather cultured and well-read lady. Moreover, the fact that she appreciates this poem, in particular, also suggests that she enjoys the natural world since this poem is filled with relevant images, like swallows and frogs.

Looking deeper, however, it is ironic that this poem is her favorite, because it has actually foreshadowed her own death. Remember that Teasdale's poem is a poem about war. Specifically, it is about how nature will not notice the destruction of humanity when they are wiped out as a result of their conflicts. Mrs. McClellan and her family have died as a result of a nuclear bomb, and the only survivor (besides the house) is their pet dog. Teasdale's poem has, therefore, foreshadowed this event, but Mrs. McClellan will never know of this tragic irony.

Explain the factors that made the South distinct from the rest of the United States during the early nineteenth century.

The South was distinct due to its significant class divides and rigid social stratification.  The region had slavery, and only the richest planters could afford many slaves.  The South had most of the millionaires in the country before the Civil War.  Some small farmers owned one or two slaves or rented slaves during the busy season, but they often had to work beside them.  Poor whites could not own land, because they lacked the means...

The South was distinct due to its significant class divides and rigid social stratification.  The region had slavery, and only the richest planters could afford many slaves.  The South had most of the millionaires in the country before the Civil War.  Some small farmers owned one or two slaves or rented slaves during the busy season, but they often had to work beside them.  Poor whites could not own land, because they lacked the means to buy it.  They also resented the slaves because slaves took away their jobs.  The South was also known for its monoculture of cotton; planters did not want to divert resources from this cash crop because it brought good prices in Europe and the northeastern United States.  

This social stratification meant that many people who had the means to do so left the South and moved north or west for greater opportunity.  The region did not experience many of the internal improvements of the rest of the nation because planters did not want to give up land or labor to make these improvements possible.  The region also did not experience the immigration boom of the nineteenth century because of the lack of opportunities.  While some regions did receive Irish immigrants as railroad workers, immigration in the South pales in comparison to Northern cities.