“Where I Lived, and What I Lived For” in Walden by Henry David Thoreau
The phrase “tied to the mast like Ulysses” (paragraph 2) serves primarily to
A.
introduce the following example
B.
enliven the essay with allusions to mythology
C.
identify a shift in tone
D.
demonstrate the plight of sailors
E.
stress the dangerous nature of the task

You're asking in the ap section, so i'll give the ap calculus-style answer. alternatively, you can find the vertex of the parabola and use the "y"-coordinate as the answer.

the maximum height can occur at a critical number, that is, a number  such that  .

the derivative of  can be calculated as follows:



find a value of  that is a zero of the derivative:


this is parabola that is opening downward; we can assume there is a maximum at  .

to find that maximum, calculate  .