1. His behavior towards Tom shows how strong his feeling are, and he does not care anymore about his freedom to help his friend. In the last chapters Jim's character is finally complete: his being kind, not having bad attitudes and instead having good feelings toward people make him one of the purest souls.
2. The doctor's speech helped people to understand Jim. All his words saying how good Jim had been make their judgment, and they "don't cuss at him no more". Although this shows how easily people were influenced and did not have their own idea, at the same time shows how actually his behavior was better than many white peeps'.
3. The bullet is seen by Tom as a trophy, he makes a necklace out of it and shows it off. This is significant because it's Tom's dream - he had always wanted to have this kind of adventure and the bullet, to him, is the proof that he actually is one of his books' characters... of course he is: he is a part of the Romantic society.
4. Huck decides to leave again and have more adventures because he does not feel as part of the society. He IS NOT part of it. He does see the society as corrupted and he does not want to be a part of it, therefore the only solution is escaping.
5. The book is built up with Huck's point of view. His impressions and sensations are used to give the reader the exact idea of what HE feels like. He describes things and events as he sees them, sometimes not actually as they are: his naivety makes things look a way that they might actually not be. For instance in the circus, it was hard to understand what actually was going on: in fact if Huck's perception helps us to understand HIM, on the other hand it's harder to get what is going on. Of course a third person narrator would have changed the whole book: the story would have not been as funny and ironic because it would have been a normal sequence of actions, and a lot of turnups would not have been so surprising, given the omniscence of the narrator.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Huck does stuff. Well, so do I.
chapters 21-23/ last three questions:
1. In chapter 26 Huck steals the money to give it to the girls, in chapter 31 he decides to help Jim to escape. In the first choice, Huck blames someone else for the "crime" he committed: he says that the slaves might have stolen the money, so that he wouldn't have trouble while in the second part Huck decides to take on all the consequences of his action. Huck's struggles are quite ironic
because althouh he knows that what he does goes against the principles of the society, he does it anyway.
2-3. Huck writes the letter because he does know that free the slave will cause problems and breaks the society's rules. But writing it down makes Huck understand everything that would happen if he did NOT let Jim escape and realize that the consequences would be more weighty.
OTHER QUESTIONS
1. Chapter 31 is the climax of the story because until this moment Huck has been unsure about what he wanted to do, and he had not been involved in anything that involved criminal actions besides rafting with him while now he DECIDES to take control of the situation and do actually something to rescue Jim and free him
2. The irony in Huck's statement is that the words are his truth believes. He does think that he is damned and that his afterlife will be in the hell.
3. The description of the house at the beginning of chapter 32 reminds of a very western one. "makes it seem so lonesome and like everybody's dead and gone"this can be linked to the theme of rebirth, this means that that kind of lifestyle (his previous) is not anymore his.
4. Huck sees Providence as faith, almost as a kind of religion because of his dependence from it. He does trust Providence as a god, he feels like it gives suggestions to him. Of course Ms Watson would approve this feeling because it is a religious one.
5. The irony is used as satire: "No. Killed a nigger." "Well, it's lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt.” this shows us that she does not even consider slaves as real people
6. The theme here is romanticism versus realism since the Tom is actually the symbol of romanticism that contrast with Huck, the very symbol of realism and practicalness and here the roles are inverted.
7. Tom and Huck's reasons are different because the first one wants to have an adventure, and he wants things to be over-done and done in a romantic way while Huck just wants his friend to be free.
8. This sentence shows the good feelings of Huck and he does criticizes the negative aspects of the human soul, the being rascals and cruel. This is compared and contrasted with his pure soul, and his reflection is on the free will given to the men: they can be cruel, but don't have to.
9. Tom's reaction is quite a paradox. He allows Huck to steal, but after Huck steals the watermelon Tom blames H. because stealing is only allowed to get things that they need for escaping. It's ironic because he allows stealing... only in part.
10. Huck admires Tom very much, that's why he lets him take control. He underestimates himself and is confident about Tom's actions.
ASSIGNMENT
One of Mark Twain’s main themes in this novel is the contrast between realism and romaticism. Twain uses his main character, Huck, to underline the fact that the Romantic ideas were not the right type of literature, since they were too far from the reality. Through the whole book the reader can find many examples in which the dispise towards the previous literature is evident.
In chapter 34 Huck tells to Tom his plan to rescue the slave, a plan easy and efficient, but his friend replies: “[...] it's too blame' simple; there ain't nothing TO it. What's the good of a plan that ain't no more trouble than that? [...]" Tom doesn’t want to free Jim because animated from good feelings, but just for the ideals provoked by his books. He would risk the success of the “mission” to accomplish his fantasies. With this, Twain might say that the ideas created by Romantic literature might negatively influence the reality.
In chapter 35 Tom says to Huck to borrow a shirt so that Jim could write his journal on, but Huck replies: "Journal your granny -- JIM can't write." and answering to this response, Tom says that it does not matter. So, once again, Twain says that the ideas that romanticism inculcate are bad for the readers. It seems moreover that to Mark Twain, the idealization of the Romantic literature deforms the perception of reality.
So Twain is not just saying that Romanticism is a kind literature that does not reflect reality, but also that it changes the perception of this and might even be detrimental to the reality.
1. In chapter 26 Huck steals the money to give it to the girls, in chapter 31 he decides to help Jim to escape. In the first choice, Huck blames someone else for the "crime" he committed: he says that the slaves might have stolen the money, so that he wouldn't have trouble while in the second part Huck decides to take on all the consequences of his action. Huck's struggles are quite ironic
because althouh he knows that what he does goes against the principles of the society, he does it anyway.
2-3. Huck writes the letter because he does know that free the slave will cause problems and breaks the society's rules. But writing it down makes Huck understand everything that would happen if he did NOT let Jim escape and realize that the consequences would be more weighty.
OTHER QUESTIONS
1. Chapter 31 is the climax of the story because until this moment Huck has been unsure about what he wanted to do, and he had not been involved in anything that involved criminal actions besides rafting with him while now he DECIDES to take control of the situation and do actually something to rescue Jim and free him
2. The irony in Huck's statement is that the words are his truth believes. He does think that he is damned and that his afterlife will be in the hell.
3. The description of the house at the beginning of chapter 32 reminds of a very western one. "makes it seem so lonesome and like everybody's dead and gone"this can be linked to the theme of rebirth, this means that that kind of lifestyle (his previous) is not anymore his.
4. Huck sees Providence as faith, almost as a kind of religion because of his dependence from it. He does trust Providence as a god, he feels like it gives suggestions to him. Of course Ms Watson would approve this feeling because it is a religious one.
5. The irony is used as satire: "No. Killed a nigger." "Well, it's lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt.” this shows us that she does not even consider slaves as real people
6. The theme here is romanticism versus realism since the Tom is actually the symbol of romanticism that contrast with Huck, the very symbol of realism and practicalness and here the roles are inverted.
7. Tom and Huck's reasons are different because the first one wants to have an adventure, and he wants things to be over-done and done in a romantic way while Huck just wants his friend to be free.
8. This sentence shows the good feelings of Huck and he does criticizes the negative aspects of the human soul, the being rascals and cruel. This is compared and contrasted with his pure soul, and his reflection is on the free will given to the men: they can be cruel, but don't have to.
9. Tom's reaction is quite a paradox. He allows Huck to steal, but after Huck steals the watermelon Tom blames H. because stealing is only allowed to get things that they need for escaping. It's ironic because he allows stealing... only in part.
10. Huck admires Tom very much, that's why he lets him take control. He underestimates himself and is confident about Tom's actions.
ASSIGNMENT
One of Mark Twain’s main themes in this novel is the contrast between realism and romaticism. Twain uses his main character, Huck, to underline the fact that the Romantic ideas were not the right type of literature, since they were too far from the reality. Through the whole book the reader can find many examples in which the dispise towards the previous literature is evident.
In chapter 34 Huck tells to Tom his plan to rescue the slave, a plan easy and efficient, but his friend replies: “[...] it's too blame' simple; there ain't nothing TO it. What's the good of a plan that ain't no more trouble than that? [...]" Tom doesn’t want to free Jim because animated from good feelings, but just for the ideals provoked by his books. He would risk the success of the “mission” to accomplish his fantasies. With this, Twain might say that the ideas created by Romantic literature might negatively influence the reality.
In chapter 35 Tom says to Huck to borrow a shirt so that Jim could write his journal on, but Huck replies: "Journal your granny -- JIM can't write." and answering to this response, Tom says that it does not matter. So, once again, Twain says that the ideas that romanticism inculcate are bad for the readers. It seems moreover that to Mark Twain, the idealization of the Romantic literature deforms the perception of reality.
So Twain is not just saying that Romanticism is a kind literature that does not reflect reality, but also that it changes the perception of this and might even be detrimental to the reality.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
I forget things!
8. Lizabeth's story changes Huck’s view of Jim, at least in part.. it makes it just better. Jim moans about his children cause he misses them, and he even talks about stealing them because of his strong love although his trip gives him the chance to think about his family and his previous actions. Jim can’t forgive himself… Jim because he cares of his children and he reflects on what he has done and the effects on his and children’s lives. The slave is sorry and this shows his great humanity. Of course, we can compare his persona with others taht we have found on the book: Pap in first place, is maybe the worst dad.
9. Huck is a Tom Saywer’s friend. He lives with the widow, a woman who takes care of him, although she has a lot of rules: she makes him read the Bible, makes him go to school, doesn’t allow him to smoke. Huck hates this life and wants to run away. Tom Sawyer stops him and accepts him in his “gang”. He sneaks out at night to meet his friends. The friends pretend to steal things and kill people, although they don’t actually commit criminal actions because of Tom Saywer’s imagination and knowledge of action books. The worst “attack” was interrupting a sunday picnic, and Huck does not understand what is going on, since Tom told him that there were Arabs, elephants and diamonds. One day, Huck sees Pap’s footprints in the snow and figures out that Pap has come. Since he owned $ 600 000, money “earned” previously with Tom, decides to give all those dollars to the judge, so that Pap couldn’t get them. Pap asks for Huck to be with him, but in the court the new judge gives Huck to Pap and locks him in the cabin. Even though Huck likes this life without any more rules, he tries to escape because of Pap’s drunk behavior and attempts to kill him. Huck steals some things so that it would have seemed as robbers broke into the house. He used a pig’s blood pretending it was his and throws it into the river as if it really his corp was dragged and thrown into the water. He rushes towards Jackson Island and finds the slave Jim who’s running away too because Miss Watson (the widow’s sister) wants to sell him to the South. Huck plays the first trick on Jim, he puts a dead snake (bad luck) in Jim’s bed and the “nigger” gets bit. They find a death body on the island, and to find out what’s going on on the shore, they go to the floating house of the dead man and find dresses. Huck dresses up and goes to the shore but he fails because he doesn’t know how girls act. He finds out that Pap is more worth than Jim, and this makes us understand that a possible murderer was not considered as bad as a slave, and more useless. Then the couple arrives to the Walter Scott, a boat. There is a real gang and they figure that the criminals are gonna kill one of the members. Huck wants to save them because of his good heart and of the thought that he might end up being one of them someday. He talks to the steamboat guy and after having found out the name of the richest man in the town by chance, he tells him to go up to check the boat because there is this relative of that guy that will pay for everything, but the Walter Scott has sunk by then.
They get lost in the fog for a long night and Huck plays the second trick on Jim: the boy says that Jim was drunk and had dreamed everything, but Jim was truly worried about him.
Soon enough the raft is destroyed by a steamboat and the two arrive in the family. Huck makes friends with Buck and makes up a name. Buck wants to show Huck a snake and they find Jim (connection with Jim and snake). When they come back to the house, everyone is fighting and Huck runs away.
The last personas they meet are the king and duke who are running away and Huck saves them, but not on purpose. They pretend to be dukes and kings but it is not true, and Huck figures that is not important to tell Jim that they’re not real royalties because it would be “no use”. They put on Shakespeare spending time performing, but no one comes to the plays. With a different show, the Nonesuch, people laugh and appreciate it more because people want to have fun but the duke is sad because the couple had worked hard to play Shakespeare.
Then Huck goes to town and there is B, a drunk guy who never hurt anyone, but he gets shot by a colonel. People want to see the body of the dead, and scream and fight to see it. The mob to his house and react the shoot and they want to lynch the guy… the whole situation is a circus! Then he went to a real circus and he gets fooled but he thinks that the ringmaster was the one fooled, not understanding that it was part of the plan. Arrived on the shore again, the “gang” finds out that a rich man has dead. After having found out more details, they pretend to be the two English brothers of the dead man, Peter Wilks to get his inheritance. They give the money to the sisters of the man, but when a doctor claims them to be impostors, the eldest sister, Mary Jean, decides to give all the money to the two partners. Huck steals the money from them because he figures he can’t do something bad to these young ladies. He hides in the closet and listens to their conversation: the king and the duke will store the money in the straw under the bed (place in which Huck had decided to hide at first) but they’re worried that one of the slaves might steal it. Huck gets the money and hides it in the coffin of P.W., decided to write a letter to Mary Jean telling her where the money was. While downtown, the two “real” brothers come, and they want the money. They blame the king and the duke to be frauds, and a lawyer tries to figure out who’s telling the truth. They go to an inn and talk. After some questions, the British people ask about a tattoo on the dead’s body, questioning the king and the duke about it. They make up a story, saying that there was a little blue arrow, while the “brothers” say that there were three letters but the two folks who buried PW say that there were no tattoos. To decide who is right, they decide to get Peter out of the grave, but Huck had put money there! When everyone gathers there around (with shovels but not lanterns because they were just interested to the gruesome stuff) they find the money, and in the messed crowd Huck has the chance to run to Jim who was so worried for him. When they’re on the boat, after having floated a bit, the duke and the king go aboard and try to kill each other because they suspected of each other of having stolen the money.
9. Huck is a Tom Saywer’s friend. He lives with the widow, a woman who takes care of him, although she has a lot of rules: she makes him read the Bible, makes him go to school, doesn’t allow him to smoke. Huck hates this life and wants to run away. Tom Sawyer stops him and accepts him in his “gang”. He sneaks out at night to meet his friends. The friends pretend to steal things and kill people, although they don’t actually commit criminal actions because of Tom Saywer’s imagination and knowledge of action books. The worst “attack” was interrupting a sunday picnic, and Huck does not understand what is going on, since Tom told him that there were Arabs, elephants and diamonds. One day, Huck sees Pap’s footprints in the snow and figures out that Pap has come. Since he owned $ 600 000, money “earned” previously with Tom, decides to give all those dollars to the judge, so that Pap couldn’t get them. Pap asks for Huck to be with him, but in the court the new judge gives Huck to Pap and locks him in the cabin. Even though Huck likes this life without any more rules, he tries to escape because of Pap’s drunk behavior and attempts to kill him. Huck steals some things so that it would have seemed as robbers broke into the house. He used a pig’s blood pretending it was his and throws it into the river as if it really his corp was dragged and thrown into the water. He rushes towards Jackson Island and finds the slave Jim who’s running away too because Miss Watson (the widow’s sister) wants to sell him to the South. Huck plays the first trick on Jim, he puts a dead snake (bad luck) in Jim’s bed and the “nigger” gets bit. They find a death body on the island, and to find out what’s going on on the shore, they go to the floating house of the dead man and find dresses. Huck dresses up and goes to the shore but he fails because he doesn’t know how girls act. He finds out that Pap is more worth than Jim, and this makes us understand that a possible murderer was not considered as bad as a slave, and more useless. Then the couple arrives to the Walter Scott, a boat. There is a real gang and they figure that the criminals are gonna kill one of the members. Huck wants to save them because of his good heart and of the thought that he might end up being one of them someday. He talks to the steamboat guy and after having found out the name of the richest man in the town by chance, he tells him to go up to check the boat because there is this relative of that guy that will pay for everything, but the Walter Scott has sunk by then.
They get lost in the fog for a long night and Huck plays the second trick on Jim: the boy says that Jim was drunk and had dreamed everything, but Jim was truly worried about him.
Soon enough the raft is destroyed by a steamboat and the two arrive in the family. Huck makes friends with Buck and makes up a name. Buck wants to show Huck a snake and they find Jim (connection with Jim and snake). When they come back to the house, everyone is fighting and Huck runs away.
The last personas they meet are the king and duke who are running away and Huck saves them, but not on purpose. They pretend to be dukes and kings but it is not true, and Huck figures that is not important to tell Jim that they’re not real royalties because it would be “no use”. They put on Shakespeare spending time performing, but no one comes to the plays. With a different show, the Nonesuch, people laugh and appreciate it more because people want to have fun but the duke is sad because the couple had worked hard to play Shakespeare.
Then Huck goes to town and there is B, a drunk guy who never hurt anyone, but he gets shot by a colonel. People want to see the body of the dead, and scream and fight to see it. The mob to his house and react the shoot and they want to lynch the guy… the whole situation is a circus! Then he went to a real circus and he gets fooled but he thinks that the ringmaster was the one fooled, not understanding that it was part of the plan. Arrived on the shore again, the “gang” finds out that a rich man has dead. After having found out more details, they pretend to be the two English brothers of the dead man, Peter Wilks to get his inheritance. They give the money to the sisters of the man, but when a doctor claims them to be impostors, the eldest sister, Mary Jean, decides to give all the money to the two partners. Huck steals the money from them because he figures he can’t do something bad to these young ladies. He hides in the closet and listens to their conversation: the king and the duke will store the money in the straw under the bed (place in which Huck had decided to hide at first) but they’re worried that one of the slaves might steal it. Huck gets the money and hides it in the coffin of P.W., decided to write a letter to Mary Jean telling her where the money was. While downtown, the two “real” brothers come, and they want the money. They blame the king and the duke to be frauds, and a lawyer tries to figure out who’s telling the truth. They go to an inn and talk. After some questions, the British people ask about a tattoo on the dead’s body, questioning the king and the duke about it. They make up a story, saying that there was a little blue arrow, while the “brothers” say that there were three letters but the two folks who buried PW say that there were no tattoos. To decide who is right, they decide to get Peter out of the grave, but Huck had put money there! When everyone gathers there around (with shovels but not lanterns because they were just interested to the gruesome stuff) they find the money, and in the messed crowd Huck has the chance to run to Jim who was so worried for him. When they’re on the boat, after having floated a bit, the duke and the king go aboard and try to kill each other because they suspected of each other of having stolen the money.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Huckie Huckie is growing up.
1. the residents are described as extremely cruel individuals, who want to lynch someone and make dogs run in circles until they die. The Arkansas' behavior is just the practical discounting back of the quote: their actions testify the cruel soul of the humans.
2. Huck is a good kid, he knows that the conduct of the two criminals is not fair, he doesn't share their ideas and besides, he doesn't want to get in trouble.
3. Twain satirizes the idea of honor - considered as a virtue that people should protect with their lives. The true episode is the murder of a drunk guy that importuned a Colonel and got killed for this.
4. The circus is an easy entertainment that does not require people to understand or focus on the actual show, while Shakespeare is a type of fun that needs educated people willing to pay attention to what they are seeing. Of course most people look for easy fun therefore the circus is much more crowded.
5. Huck's reaction underlines his naiavity and guillability because he didn't understand that the trick was played on the spectators, not on the ringmaster, whom Huck thinks to be more deceived.
6. The ad provokes men to be curious because it tells that not everyone is allowed to watch the show. People generally want to do secret things, or prohibited.
7. Twain is saying that actually the two criminals are malefactors, they are not truthful and use money of other people to their advantage, but so are the royalties: they do not reveal all the secrets that would make them look evil and avid and use money from the peasants for their luxurious life.
2. Huck is a good kid, he knows that the conduct of the two criminals is not fair, he doesn't share their ideas and besides, he doesn't want to get in trouble.
3. Twain satirizes the idea of honor - considered as a virtue that people should protect with their lives. The true episode is the murder of a drunk guy that importuned a Colonel and got killed for this.
4. The circus is an easy entertainment that does not require people to understand or focus on the actual show, while Shakespeare is a type of fun that needs educated people willing to pay attention to what they are seeing. Of course most people look for easy fun therefore the circus is much more crowded.
5. Huck's reaction underlines his naiavity and guillability because he didn't understand that the trick was played on the spectators, not on the ringmaster, whom Huck thinks to be more deceived.
6. The ad provokes men to be curious because it tells that not everyone is allowed to watch the show. People generally want to do secret things, or prohibited.
7. Twain is saying that actually the two criminals are malefactors, they are not truthful and use money of other people to their advantage, but so are the royalties: they do not reveal all the secrets that would make them look evil and avid and use money from the peasants for their luxurious life.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Huck, don't sweat it!
4. The bounty hunters want to give Huck $40 because of the story he made up: that "his father was sick". The ironic situation is due to the fact that their illegal job does not respect ethic or moral values at all, while their action for Huck's father seems to be extremely kind. This shows that these people good people, but misguided.
5. The two means of transportation are a symbol for the individual vs the society. The "naturally" created raft stands for the individual, who is lead by his feelings and acts good because of his pure soul. On the other hand the "industrially" created steamboat is a symbol of society which destroys the natural morals of humans.
6. Mark Twain wanted his book to be a sequel of Tom Sawyer. While writing his memoir he went on a cruise down the Mississippi and met interesting people that gave him the inspiration to keep on writing the book that he could use as a satire to help slavery and racism, since in the south racism was using an extreme form of violence to keep black people away from power.
7. The description makes fun of the romantic idea of death, which is distorted from the realistic view that Twain had. The family is hypocritical: their behavior does not correspond to the words they speak. The fact that they go in the church with the guns is an evident example of this hypocrisy.
9. Huck's reaction indicate his naivety, and his realism and attachment to the present and the concrete. The motif of Moses is probably used because of the action that they do: they both free slaves. And a slight irony might be caught: from Twain's not-religious point of view, this shows how good can a people act without being religious.
10. Another criticism is made to religious people: the hogs seem to go to the church everyday, while christians just go there when they have to. He might be highlighting also the contradiction in the family. The most "religious" people go to the church and appreciate the sermon and the brotherly love, but their feud continues as soon as they leave the holy place.
11. The feud is typical in the romantic literature, and of course it recalls one of Shakespeare's masterpieces- Romeo and Juliet. The satire is made over the fact that the family does not even know what is the origin of the rivalry, but they keep on fighting. Sometimes people follow someone's footprints although there is not a right or fair reason.
12. The raft is of course compared to the freedom that the two have when they're on the river, which is the moment in which Huck and Jim can be themselves and free from the corrupted society (grangerford house) in fact on the shore the situation in much different. Although the accommodation might be more comfortable by an objective point of view, Huck's pure soul can not bear the corrupted society.
13. The clothes do represent the habits of the community: on the river they are more comfortable without them, because they get rid of all the hypocrisy that they have to bear on the shore.
14. Huck does not want to have troubles, he knows that kind of people and he has learnt how to deal with them. This reaction shows a maturation of his character.
16. The amazing love story is re interpreted by two man, Juliet is a bald, liar, old man while in Shakespeare she is the most pure and beautiful girl. The motif is used to make fun both of the feud in the previous chapters and the literary idealistic thought that is so far from Twain's reality.
17. The pirate, the worst kind of criminal, is played by the "king", person that should be the noblest. The pirate wants to redeem himself, as we've seen before with Pap. The two characters have not changed as they say, but they speculate on people's religious feelings (charity, brotherly love..) to obtain what the want. The satire is used on these feelings. People do them because they want to respect their believes' criteria, although they are actually helping criminal actions.
18. Everything that they do, and the way they behave, do not correspond to the names they call themselves: King and Duke. But maybe Twain is just emphasizing his idea of the corrupted royalties.
5. The two means of transportation are a symbol for the individual vs the society. The "naturally" created raft stands for the individual, who is lead by his feelings and acts good because of his pure soul. On the other hand the "industrially" created steamboat is a symbol of society which destroys the natural morals of humans.
6. Mark Twain wanted his book to be a sequel of Tom Sawyer. While writing his memoir he went on a cruise down the Mississippi and met interesting people that gave him the inspiration to keep on writing the book that he could use as a satire to help slavery and racism, since in the south racism was using an extreme form of violence to keep black people away from power.
7. The description makes fun of the romantic idea of death, which is distorted from the realistic view that Twain had. The family is hypocritical: their behavior does not correspond to the words they speak. The fact that they go in the church with the guns is an evident example of this hypocrisy.
9. Huck's reaction indicate his naivety, and his realism and attachment to the present and the concrete. The motif of Moses is probably used because of the action that they do: they both free slaves. And a slight irony might be caught: from Twain's not-religious point of view, this shows how good can a people act without being religious.
10. Another criticism is made to religious people: the hogs seem to go to the church everyday, while christians just go there when they have to. He might be highlighting also the contradiction in the family. The most "religious" people go to the church and appreciate the sermon and the brotherly love, but their feud continues as soon as they leave the holy place.
11. The feud is typical in the romantic literature, and of course it recalls one of Shakespeare's masterpieces- Romeo and Juliet. The satire is made over the fact that the family does not even know what is the origin of the rivalry, but they keep on fighting. Sometimes people follow someone's footprints although there is not a right or fair reason.
12. The raft is of course compared to the freedom that the two have when they're on the river, which is the moment in which Huck and Jim can be themselves and free from the corrupted society (grangerford house) in fact on the shore the situation in much different. Although the accommodation might be more comfortable by an objective point of view, Huck's pure soul can not bear the corrupted society.
13. The clothes do represent the habits of the community: on the river they are more comfortable without them, because they get rid of all the hypocrisy that they have to bear on the shore.
14. Huck does not want to have troubles, he knows that kind of people and he has learnt how to deal with them. This reaction shows a maturation of his character.
16. The amazing love story is re interpreted by two man, Juliet is a bald, liar, old man while in Shakespeare she is the most pure and beautiful girl. The motif is used to make fun both of the feud in the previous chapters and the literary idealistic thought that is so far from Twain's reality.
17. The pirate, the worst kind of criminal, is played by the "king", person that should be the noblest. The pirate wants to redeem himself, as we've seen before with Pap. The two characters have not changed as they say, but they speculate on people's religious feelings (charity, brotherly love..) to obtain what the want. The satire is used on these feelings. People do them because they want to respect their believes' criteria, although they are actually helping criminal actions.
18. Everything that they do, and the way they behave, do not correspond to the names they call themselves: King and Duke. But maybe Twain is just emphasizing his idea of the corrupted royalties.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Our friend Huck strikes again.
5. The escape from his father reflects the theme of FREEDOM. He is free now, illegally. (so is Jim: he is a slave, property of Miss Watson while Huck belongs to his father according to laws.) So the escape is breaking rules that keep him linked to his father, but rules that make him actually a prisoner, that's why he becomes free escaping.
6. Huck's wish is itself ironic: he wanted to be proud of himself,and he would have obtained this feeling by showing Tom his work, alhtough he consider Tom to be better than him, but the plan wouldn't have been successuful, because Tom would have put some irrealistic details. So Huck's wish is ironic because if Tom would have been there, he wouldn't have been able to escape safely.
7. The ironic fact is that the bread arrives actually to Huck, and he is considered dead. So the believes of the superstition actually happen. Huck does not believe that prayer is linked to have concrete things anymore, after his discussion about the prayer. But here it seems that the spiritual gifts become actually real gifts. We can see the theme of rebirth, cause he is returning to life, a new life.
8. Jim is scared when he finds Huck because he is escaping too against the law, so he is also reluctant to tell Huck his story because he didn't know yet if he was a "man of word" or not. If Huck would have come back to the shore and told everyone Jim's story, this would have meant death for the slave.
9. The ribirth is given by the new situation: they both are free from their past and have a new life ahead of them. Although Huck has the chance to begin everything from the beginning, he knows the implications of his actions: he is breaking the law because he is helping a slave to escape.
10. Huck does know that what he is doing his wrong, against the society, but his honesty is too strong to betray his partner.
11. Jim sees different events and links circumstances with consequences in that paricular case, applying those to every condition similar to the one he has lived. So what actually happened is applied to general cases.
12. The trick is typical from Huck: he wants to play, and does not understand the consequences of his actions in first place. The result of this one trick is Huck's beginning of a period in which he will believe in superstitions and he is ashamed of himself at the moment, although he doesn't admit it: Huck is still a little child that will moral-develop through the book
13. Huck's trip to shore shows us another side of Huck: he is actually foxy if in the need. In fact his stratagems help him in reaching his goals.
14. The common human trait that emerges is exaggeration: he exaggerates to get people's attention, as we already saw in the previous chapters also Jim did with the witches' story.
15. The satire is something that is used to.. "change the society" making fun of it. In this case, there is a paradox: the reward is greater for the person who would find Jim who is a slave, instead of the reward for catching a (possible) murderer: pap. So here the satire is used to tell people the absurdity of the valuing: a murderer of course is a "worse" person than a slave, he should be put in prison, but the greater reward is given for a slave that works.
HERE WE GO WITH PAAAAAAAAAAART TWO!
1. Huck's distort logic makes him think that borrowing and stealing is the same think because of the different precepts heard over the years from different people. Nevertheless, he has good moral values, so he decides that he won't steal if not needed.
2. We can understand something from Huck's insistence: he is an adventurous kid and he wants to be like Tom Sawyer, or like one of the characters of his books.
3. The name of the boat is an irony: Walter Scott is a romantic writer. His novels included fantastic epiphanies and characters. Twain's story is, in contrast, very realistic and "normal" since his licterature wanted facts more similar to reality.
4. Huck does try to be a good person. He tries to imagine himself in the same condition, as a grown up. He does his best to help people, showing his kind side. Besides, he thinks of the murderers as his "friends", as his partners in a future life because he thinks he might end up being a murderer someday.
5. The satire is in the man's response to Huck's quest for help. Huck uses a trick to get help: he pretends that the lady in danger is a relative on a rich man mentioned previously by the boatman himself. We can see how smart he is here. The man is not moved by good feelings: his reason to help the man is because of money, not of real care. This is a criticism to the society: people does not act because of values but because of money.
6. Jim thinks he is trapped anyway because he doesn't see any solutions for a safe life after anything that could have happened, in any case it would have been a bad situation: either his death if he died or slavrey again and punishments if he got caught again
7. Huck relies his knowledge on a romantic and non precise idea of the kings. He doesn't actually know about them because of lack of education
8. Jim's understaning of kings' role is as messed up as Huck's.
Jim associates the knowledge of a small legend (of King S., who is said to have chopped a baby in a half) to all the kings' duties. (Almost like superstition, from a small single case he applies this concept to everyone) but although he doesn't understand the exact point, he does take a side against them thanks to Huck's not exact but rooted-in-thruth stories. His vehemency anyway is probably due to the allegory because the same situation of all the people dependent from one man is the same situation that happened in the fields where slaves (Jim) worked. So he is actually against the type of society because he is the one who is dominated.
6. Huck's wish is itself ironic: he wanted to be proud of himself,and he would have obtained this feeling by showing Tom his work, alhtough he consider Tom to be better than him, but the plan wouldn't have been successuful, because Tom would have put some irrealistic details. So Huck's wish is ironic because if Tom would have been there, he wouldn't have been able to escape safely.
7. The ironic fact is that the bread arrives actually to Huck, and he is considered dead. So the believes of the superstition actually happen. Huck does not believe that prayer is linked to have concrete things anymore, after his discussion about the prayer. But here it seems that the spiritual gifts become actually real gifts. We can see the theme of rebirth, cause he is returning to life, a new life.
8. Jim is scared when he finds Huck because he is escaping too against the law, so he is also reluctant to tell Huck his story because he didn't know yet if he was a "man of word" or not. If Huck would have come back to the shore and told everyone Jim's story, this would have meant death for the slave.
9. The ribirth is given by the new situation: they both are free from their past and have a new life ahead of them. Although Huck has the chance to begin everything from the beginning, he knows the implications of his actions: he is breaking the law because he is helping a slave to escape.
10. Huck does know that what he is doing his wrong, against the society, but his honesty is too strong to betray his partner.
11. Jim sees different events and links circumstances with consequences in that paricular case, applying those to every condition similar to the one he has lived. So what actually happened is applied to general cases.
12. The trick is typical from Huck: he wants to play, and does not understand the consequences of his actions in first place. The result of this one trick is Huck's beginning of a period in which he will believe in superstitions and he is ashamed of himself at the moment, although he doesn't admit it: Huck is still a little child that will moral-develop through the book
13. Huck's trip to shore shows us another side of Huck: he is actually foxy if in the need. In fact his stratagems help him in reaching his goals.
14. The common human trait that emerges is exaggeration: he exaggerates to get people's attention, as we already saw in the previous chapters also Jim did with the witches' story.
15. The satire is something that is used to.. "change the society" making fun of it. In this case, there is a paradox: the reward is greater for the person who would find Jim who is a slave, instead of the reward for catching a (possible) murderer: pap. So here the satire is used to tell people the absurdity of the valuing: a murderer of course is a "worse" person than a slave, he should be put in prison, but the greater reward is given for a slave that works.
HERE WE GO WITH PAAAAAAAAAAART TWO!
1. Huck's distort logic makes him think that borrowing and stealing is the same think because of the different precepts heard over the years from different people. Nevertheless, he has good moral values, so he decides that he won't steal if not needed.
2. We can understand something from Huck's insistence: he is an adventurous kid and he wants to be like Tom Sawyer, or like one of the characters of his books.
3. The name of the boat is an irony: Walter Scott is a romantic writer. His novels included fantastic epiphanies and characters. Twain's story is, in contrast, very realistic and "normal" since his licterature wanted facts more similar to reality.
4. Huck does try to be a good person. He tries to imagine himself in the same condition, as a grown up. He does his best to help people, showing his kind side. Besides, he thinks of the murderers as his "friends", as his partners in a future life because he thinks he might end up being a murderer someday.
5. The satire is in the man's response to Huck's quest for help. Huck uses a trick to get help: he pretends that the lady in danger is a relative on a rich man mentioned previously by the boatman himself. We can see how smart he is here. The man is not moved by good feelings: his reason to help the man is because of money, not of real care. This is a criticism to the society: people does not act because of values but because of money.
6. Jim thinks he is trapped anyway because he doesn't see any solutions for a safe life after anything that could have happened, in any case it would have been a bad situation: either his death if he died or slavrey again and punishments if he got caught again
7. Huck relies his knowledge on a romantic and non precise idea of the kings. He doesn't actually know about them because of lack of education
8. Jim's understaning of kings' role is as messed up as Huck's.
Jim associates the knowledge of a small legend (of King S., who is said to have chopped a baby in a half) to all the kings' duties. (Almost like superstition, from a small single case he applies this concept to everyone) but although he doesn't understand the exact point, he does take a side against them thanks to Huck's not exact but rooted-in-thruth stories. His vehemency anyway is probably due to the allegory because the same situation of all the people dependent from one man is the same situation that happened in the fields where slaves (Jim) worked. So he is actually against the type of society because he is the one who is dominated.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Our new friend Huck!
1. The widow she cried over me, and called me a poor lost lamb, and she called me a lot of other names, too, but she never meant no harm by it. She put me in them new clothes again, and I couldn't do nothing but sweat and sweat, and feel all cramped up. [...] The widow rung a bell for supper, and you had to come to time. When you got to the table you couldn't go right to
eating, but you had to wait for the widow to tuck down her head and grumble a little over the victuals, though there warn't really anything the matter with them"
The widow Douglas seems to be truly interested in saving Huck's condition. Although she reflects a common personality of her age, she is actually a good woman: the widow tries to make Huck a respectable teen, even though Huck does not like or is interested society's etiquette.
Huck doesn't care about Moses story. This shows us how realistic the main character is: he doesn't see the connection with the present ("Moses had been dead a considerable long time; so
then I didn't care no more about him")
2. superstition is a motif. We see more than one example over the first chapters already. It is something that is compared and constrasted with Christianity, that might symbolize the society that criticizes superstition, although it seems that also christianity is a series of superistitious rituals (according to Twain's view). Here are a couple of examples in the first chapter of Huck's superstition. Ghosts
(I heard that kind of a sound that a ghost makes when itwants to tell about something that's on its mind and can't make itself understood, and so can't rest easy in its grave, and has to go about that way every night grieving." and then "Pretty soon a spider went crawling up my shoulder. [...] I didn't need anybody to tell me that that was an awful bad sign and would fetch me some bad luck."
3. Huck's view of afterlife is different from christians (and the widow). He sees death and afterlife as a change, as something different to do - he wants to have adventures. Death is mentioned because it is a motif and it helps us to understand Huck's personality.
4. Tom and Huck play a joke on him just to have fun and -especially Tom- make fun of him
5. Huck is talking. He views Jim as a "ruined servant" since with the attention of people, and people listening and coming to him, he wouldn't have worked much any more since he would have felt important, so he was kinda useless as servant.
6. appearance vs reality. ...?
we're talking about Tom, that, knowing that he's doing something wrong, leaves the cents. He does that only because he wants to while Huck would have stolen the candles without paying cause he'd really need them.
7. Tom is a really shrewd guy, educated, he knows what he does, the consequences of his actions, he's got imagination, understands the difference between good and bad. On the other hand, Huck is really ingenuous, uneducated and innocent. He does not know what is true and what is not, but tries to be as realistic as possible.
8. Tom wants to be and feel more noble and important
9. To Huck, pray is requested to get what you what, intended as things. We can see how materialistic he is and attached to reality, while the widow sees the prayer gifts as spiritual gifts.
10. Tom calls Huck a numskull.. because he actually is. He doesn't understand the difference between reality and fantasy.
11. Huck is just showing his traits: he's a pure realist. While Tom sees things that are only in his mind, and he is so creative to be able to invent these things, Huck is apparently too realistic to figure it.
12. Huck knows that Pap is going to try to get money from Huck, since he's become famous thanks to the money he's made.
SECOND PART:
1. Pap is being an anti-dad. He's doing the exact opposite of what he should be doing. This is an example of situational irony.
2. criticism. The society does not want to break familiar bonds, they don't care about what best, but just what they're expected to do.
3. Freedom from the society which seems kind of unfair (see Huck entrusted to the drunk father). He likes to live without the society rules that he was forced to follow when he was with the widow.
4. Twain is sending a message opposite to Pap's words. What we get from the speech are the thoughts of an extremely racist man... and he wants to point out the fact that the success is gained only from the ones who deserve it.
5. we haven't read this part ye
6. Huck wants Tom to show him how good and clever he seems now. The plan would have more elaborated and maybe not successful because too elaborated.
eating, but you had to wait for the widow to tuck down her head and grumble a little over the victuals, though there warn't really anything the matter with them"
The widow Douglas seems to be truly interested in saving Huck's condition. Although she reflects a common personality of her age, she is actually a good woman: the widow tries to make Huck a respectable teen, even though Huck does not like or is interested society's etiquette.
Huck doesn't care about Moses story. This shows us how realistic the main character is: he doesn't see the connection with the present ("Moses had been dead a considerable long time; so
then I didn't care no more about him")
2. superstition is a motif. We see more than one example over the first chapters already. It is something that is compared and constrasted with Christianity, that might symbolize the society that criticizes superstition, although it seems that also christianity is a series of superistitious rituals (according to Twain's view). Here are a couple of examples in the first chapter of Huck's superstition. Ghosts
(I heard that kind of a sound that a ghost makes when itwants to tell about something that's on its mind and can't make itself understood, and so can't rest easy in its grave, and has to go about that way every night grieving." and then "Pretty soon a spider went crawling up my shoulder. [...] I didn't need anybody to tell me that that was an awful bad sign and would fetch me some bad luck."
3. Huck's view of afterlife is different from christians (and the widow). He sees death and afterlife as a change, as something different to do - he wants to have adventures. Death is mentioned because it is a motif and it helps us to understand Huck's personality.
4. Tom and Huck play a joke on him just to have fun and -especially Tom- make fun of him
5. Huck is talking. He views Jim as a "ruined servant" since with the attention of people, and people listening and coming to him, he wouldn't have worked much any more since he would have felt important, so he was kinda useless as servant.
6. appearance vs reality. ...?
we're talking about Tom, that, knowing that he's doing something wrong, leaves the cents. He does that only because he wants to while Huck would have stolen the candles without paying cause he'd really need them.
7. Tom is a really shrewd guy, educated, he knows what he does, the consequences of his actions, he's got imagination, understands the difference between good and bad. On the other hand, Huck is really ingenuous, uneducated and innocent. He does not know what is true and what is not, but tries to be as realistic as possible.
8. Tom wants to be and feel more noble and important
9. To Huck, pray is requested to get what you what, intended as things. We can see how materialistic he is and attached to reality, while the widow sees the prayer gifts as spiritual gifts.
10. Tom calls Huck a numskull.. because he actually is. He doesn't understand the difference between reality and fantasy.
11. Huck is just showing his traits: he's a pure realist. While Tom sees things that are only in his mind, and he is so creative to be able to invent these things, Huck is apparently too realistic to figure it.
12. Huck knows that Pap is going to try to get money from Huck, since he's become famous thanks to the money he's made.
SECOND PART:
1. Pap is being an anti-dad. He's doing the exact opposite of what he should be doing. This is an example of situational irony.
2. criticism. The society does not want to break familiar bonds, they don't care about what best, but just what they're expected to do.
3. Freedom from the society which seems kind of unfair (see Huck entrusted to the drunk father). He likes to live without the society rules that he was forced to follow when he was with the widow.
4. Twain is sending a message opposite to Pap's words. What we get from the speech are the thoughts of an extremely racist man... and he wants to point out the fact that the success is gained only from the ones who deserve it.
5. we haven't read this part ye
6. Huck wants Tom to show him how good and clever he seems now. The plan would have more elaborated and maybe not successful because too elaborated.
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