Why does cutting onions make you cry?

In the great gatsby, daisy is described as

Armed with invisible ink, a cipher system, and a passion to end the war and preserve the union, elizabeth van lew became butler's eyes and ears in the confederate capital city. truth be told, however, she became much more than that. she became a spymaster, the person responsible for running a network of agents, couriers, and safe houses that was very active during the war. in addition to the spying, elizabeth van lew continued to maintain her church hill home as a safe house and something of a local union spy headquarters. —the dark game, paul janeczko what is the central idea of this passage? van lew’s home was used as a safe house, which was critical to the confederacy. van lew had a passion to end the war and preserve the union. van lew was a spymaster, a leading force in the espionage activities for the union. van lew did not enjoy working for general butler.

In order really to hate white people, one has to blot so much out of the mind — and the heart — that this hatred itself becomes an exhausting and self-destructive pose. but this does not mean, on the other hand, that love comes easily: the white world is too powerful, too complacent, too ready with gratuitous humiliation, and, above all, too ignorant and too innocent for that. which sentence best explains how the use of parallelism in the excerpt supports baldwin's purpose? a. it proves baldwin's central idea by highlighting the obvious. b. it emphasizes the problems that prevent one from loving the white world. c. it explains why the white world is unable to replace hate with love. d. it enumerates the many ways of dealing with the white world.