1. We learn that Jim is a good person regardless of what the society has done to him. After Tom gets shot Jim stays by his side and doens't care anymore about people seeing him. Tom and Huck helped him become free, so now Jim is returning the favor and being a good friend.
2. The doctor helps people understand that even colored skins are people. The doctor shows the angry townspeople that Jim stayed with Tom when he had the option and opportunity to leave. Jim risked not only his freedom but also his life for Tom. He proved Jim to be a good person even though hes a slave.
3. Tom's bullet is a symbol of an adventure that he has survived through. He wears the bullet and is proud of it.
4. Huck wants to see the world and have more adventure outside of the society that he believes is corrupt. It allows him to be free.
5. Having another character narrate the story would completely change the novel because no one else has a mind like Huck's and thinks like he does. It was told in a traditional way, and becuase of Huck he made it more entertaining and humerous. He's slightly unreliable because he's never too sure what exactly is going on because of his naivity and the fact that he's an adolesent. His conflict between his conscious and his actual decisions makes it easy to question his actions. Huck is a very real character, and doesn't overexaggerate things probably like Tom would.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Discussion Questions XXXI-XXXV
1. Chapter 31 is about Huck's decision to escape the predicament he is in and free Jim from slavery. He makes a big decision to go against his society to help a friend. It is the climax.
2. It's ironic because he actually believes he's going to hell, seriously.
3. The house is ghost-like, gloomy, and dark-it symbolizes his previous life before Jim. It shows that Huck has changed and has a new better life, but that without Jim is very lonely.
4. He describes Providence as what guided him to do the right thing. Its something that he can't control. It's like fate. It has to do with religion and how someone might trust God. Miss Watson would agree because she too is relgious.
5. Miss Phelps doesn't actually believe that anyone got hurt in the steamboat accident because she doesn't consider niggers as real people.
6. Tom Sayer is a symbol of romantic literature and society while Huck is a symbol of realism and so the theme is romantism vs real and individual vs. society.
7. Tom and Huck have two very different motives; Tom being very adventurous while all Huck wants to do is save his friend.
8. Even though both the King an Duke gave Huck problems he still cares about what happens to others, 'human beings can be cruel.' It shows he really is a good person.
9. Tom thinks that you can only steal what is needed to save Jim, and when Huck steals the watermellon Tom gets upset. Huck was hungry but Tom didn't think he had a good enough reason to take the mellon. It's ironic because stealing is stealing no matter what the reason is.
10. Huck trusts and admires Tom so he follows what he thinks is Tom's best judgement.
2. It's ironic because he actually believes he's going to hell, seriously.
3. The house is ghost-like, gloomy, and dark-it symbolizes his previous life before Jim. It shows that Huck has changed and has a new better life, but that without Jim is very lonely.
4. He describes Providence as what guided him to do the right thing. Its something that he can't control. It's like fate. It has to do with religion and how someone might trust God. Miss Watson would agree because she too is relgious.
5. Miss Phelps doesn't actually believe that anyone got hurt in the steamboat accident because she doesn't consider niggers as real people.
6. Tom Sayer is a symbol of romantic literature and society while Huck is a symbol of realism and so the theme is romantism vs real and individual vs. society.
7. Tom and Huck have two very different motives; Tom being very adventurous while all Huck wants to do is save his friend.
8. Even though both the King an Duke gave Huck problems he still cares about what happens to others, 'human beings can be cruel.' It shows he really is a good person.
9. Tom thinks that you can only steal what is needed to save Jim, and when Huck steals the watermellon Tom gets upset. Huck was hungry but Tom didn't think he had a good enough reason to take the mellon. It's ironic because stealing is stealing no matter what the reason is.
10. Huck trusts and admires Tom so he follows what he thinks is Tom's best judgement.
Discussion Questions: XXI-XXX
1. He basically described them as ruthless. Arkansas residents are the kind of people that are ammused by having dogs run in circle until they can't any longer. Arkansas is another example of how people (can) are cruel and it backs up the idea behind The Damned Human Race.
2. Hucks imagination is lacking as it is so it would make the abilty to con others extremely difficult. He sees things as they are and doens't want to argue them. He knows what the King and Duke are doing is wrong so he stays out of it.
3. Twain satires the idea of honor and Southern pride which is something that should be heavely protected. Sherman shot Boggs because they had gone months with him making fun of him. People find entertainment in pain and death, and so another satire of Twains is the fact that it's a show to the people. The human nature of people is it's entertaining until it's you, and then their bravery is gone.
4. Both the circus and the Duke and King's performances play on human nature to laugh at other people's pain and suffering. The circus had a man that pretended he wasn't actually a part of the show get upset, and then get into a dangerously entertaining situation. The Duke and King's show is about Shakespeare and not very many people go see it.
5. Hucks imagination doesn't allow him to understand that what that the circus was a trick played on the people watching. He thinks that the ringmaster doesn't know what is going on and he's the one that is being fooled.
6. By saying that ladies and children aren't admitted to see the Royal Nonesuch it provokes interest to those who are allowed to go. People would be more interested in seeing something that others can't and things that could be dangerous.
7. Twain is implying that the real king and queen are no better than the ones who are acting the part. Huck doesn't know the difference because he has only read and heard information about them.
8. The significance of the story is that he cares about the mistakes he's made. He didn't know his daughter was deaf, and it was an unknown mistake at the time, but he still feels like he can never forgive himself for what he did.
9. We meet Huck, Widow Douglas, and Miss Watson, and the society he lives in. He thinks about Moses, and they talk about relgion. We learn that Huck is very superstitious(theme) when he hears spooky noises from outside and kills a spider. He meets Tom Sawyer and hides from Jim, Miss Watson's slave who almost catches Huck sneaking out. They pull a prank of Jim and he then thinks that because his hat has been moved he had been bewtiched. They start a gang with Tom even though it's more imaginative than real. Huck is taught about prayer which he takes very literally and doesn't understand. Huck later sees a boot mark and believes his father is back so he trades his fortune for a dollar with Judge Thatcher. His father comes back, takes him away, and brings him to a cabin away from the society. To escape Huck saws a hole in the wall, fakes his death, and sets out down the river. When he arrives to Jacksons Island he finds Jim and they agree to stick together. They find a dead man floating down the river, but Jim doesn't want Huck to see it because the face disintegrated. Huck and Jim float down the river and see a sinking boat called the Walter Scott. Three murders are there, Huck and Jim lose their skiff, and then take the murders and go find them help. By the time someone goes to help them the boat was gone. They later go to Granderford house and having spent some days there learning about the useless feud that they're involved in, they leave. Huck and Jim meet the King and the Duke and realize that they're both fakes. After their performance Huck goes to the circus. The four afterwards find out that Peter Wilkks dies and the king and duke pretend to be his brothers to get his inheritance instead of Peter's four daughters. Huck steals the money from the Duke and the King and hides it in the coffin of Peter's to give to the girls later. Soon after the two real brothers show up and so the fake and real brothers fight about who really is his brother. To find out, they talk about a tattoo of Peter's (which he really doesn't have) and open his coffin to find the money that Huck had hidden. Huck runs away and finds Jim. They go rafting down the river and find the Duke and the King later.
10. In chapter 26 he takes money from the Duke and the King and later blames a 'nigger'. He doesn't take the blame, and later gives the money to the three girls because he doesn't want either of the Duke of the King to have it. Even though he's helping the girls he still doesn't want to get in trouble.
In chapter 31 Huck helps Jim and doesn't care about the consequences of his actions. He'll do whatever it takes to help free his friend regardless of the color of his skin.
In both instances he's helping other people, just in chapter 26 he's afraid of the outcome of his decisions and in 31 he has grown to stand up for his actions.
The quote is ironic because he knows hes going against his society but he knows that what he's doing is right.
11/12. Huck would rather have Jim be Miss Watsons slave at 'home' than anywhere else. The Duke and the King sold him and so the letter was for Miss Watson to know where he is to get him back. Huck knows that because of this letter all its going to do is cause more problems for everyone. 'I was letting on to give up sin, but away inside of me I was holding on to the biggest one of all. I was trying to make my mouth say I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write to that nigger's owner and tell where he was,' he wants to be a better person, but he knows that writing this letter wouldn't necessarily help. By writing the letter he realized what he had to do and instead tore up the letter.
Discussion Questions XV-XX
1. The significance is that Jim is comparing the fog and towheads to being trapped in the society with rules and people, and the 'big clear river' is freedom. Huck is saying that he's trapped in the society or the fog, and wants to reach the river or freedom to not only help him but Jim too. He already knows that he's going to reach probems along the way, or maybe get lost sometimes among the 'fog' or the society/people. It's also important because it involves a few different themes; slavery and individualism vs. society.
2. Huck feels guilty and eventually apologizes. He doesn't end up regretting owning up to his wrongdoing, or what he thought should be apologized for even though Jim is a slave. Huck starts to realize that slaves are people not just someones property. It has to do with the themes racism and slavery. Jim's apology is antislavery.
3. A. Hucks afraid he's a bad person because he has helped Jim, a slave, escape and become free. Huck has been taught that slaves are people's property so he's basically stealing him which he knows is wrong. It's one of the worst things you could do in society.
B. It's ironic because he has to steal his kids back even though they're HIS. They're owned by someone he doens't even know that hasn't done anything to him. If he can't buy them back he'll steal them.
C. If Huck tells on Jim, he'll feel bad, but if he doesn't he feel just as bad. He sees no point in doing, right, if wrong is easier and the outcome is just the same.
D. This has to do with the idea of freedom and slaves. It's a connection of rattle snake Jim to im being black. They were looking out for Cairo to get to Pittsburg so they didn't float down into New Orleans where it would be deep into the South with slavery.
4. They give Huck money because they feel sorry for Huck and that they can't help him. He told them that his father was sick and so it's ironic because you'd expect the bounty hunters to be mean and uncaring individuals. It shows that even though they're hunting black slaves they're not actually bad people.
5. The steam boat is like the destruction of nature by society. Society destroys nature. Individual vs. society conflict. The naturally created raft stands for people, and the industrial created steamboat is like the society which ruins peoples ability to be good regardless of what is expected.
6. He started writing but didn't like where the story was heading so he stopped writing until he took a trip down the Mississippi where he found more inspiration. It helped him to explain more of the hypocricy in the society and slavery in the south. He began to write again.
7. They seem to have a romantic view of life and death. There house is fancy and neatly decorated with poety and depressing paintings of war. They also have a book on family medicine and Friendship's offering. They're hypocrits because even though they are in a feud with a different family, the Sheperdson's, they act as if nothing is wrong.
8. Huck slyly got Buck to remind him of what his name is which represents the theme of gullibility. The way the Grangerfords act represents the theme of appearance vs. reality because they act as if nothing is wrong even though they're fighting with a different family. The Grangerford's sense of romanticism represents the conflict between realism and romanticism.
9. Huck doesn't understand jokes about the bible, he takes things too seriously which can connect back to his lack of imagination. He doesn't know very much about the bible so he isn't sure wether it's a joke or not. Moses~motif.
10. The hogs seem to go to the church everyday, while christians just go there when they have to. The Shepherdsons and Grangerfords go to church with guns and listen to a preacher talk about brotherly love. They discuss how much they enjoyed it, yet after they leave the church they proceed to continue their death-causing feud.
11. It symbolizes romanticism. They fight against eachother even though they're not really too sure why anymore. It's unnecessary. It's like Romeo and Juliet where the Capulets and the Montague families clash.
12. The raft stands for freedom outside their corrupt society. One would think that a bed or a warm house would be better, but from their own perspective they would rather be free on the river where they're not limited by expectation or rules.
13. Their nudity represents freedom, and so when they strip off their clothes, they strip off the society. The raft is already symbolic for freedom but their clothes are the final suggestion saying that they are through with the societies rules. The clothes are the society that they are stripping off.
14. Huck knows that they're both not royalty but doesn't want to expose them because he wanted to avoid unnecessary quarrels. He learned from situations with his father.
15. I think the king and the duke are more shrewd than Huck. Niether one of the men take any notice to Jim, a runaway slave, yet Huck can tell that niether of the men are actually what they say they are. Huck also is mature enough to not start any unnecessary arguments with the 'royalty'.
16. The fake king and duke is a satire of Romeo and Juliet that mocks romanticism. Romeo and Juliet is a motif that represents society and the battle between romanticism and realism.
17. It's satirizing the gullibility of people. The pirate takes advantage of Huck and says he wants to go out and help other pirates if only he had some money.
18. It's saying some people are extremely fake and that some people think that they can get things they want by how gullible someone is.
2. Huck feels guilty and eventually apologizes. He doesn't end up regretting owning up to his wrongdoing, or what he thought should be apologized for even though Jim is a slave. Huck starts to realize that slaves are people not just someones property. It has to do with the themes racism and slavery. Jim's apology is antislavery.
3. A. Hucks afraid he's a bad person because he has helped Jim, a slave, escape and become free. Huck has been taught that slaves are people's property so he's basically stealing him which he knows is wrong. It's one of the worst things you could do in society.
B. It's ironic because he has to steal his kids back even though they're HIS. They're owned by someone he doens't even know that hasn't done anything to him. If he can't buy them back he'll steal them.
C. If Huck tells on Jim, he'll feel bad, but if he doesn't he feel just as bad. He sees no point in doing, right, if wrong is easier and the outcome is just the same.
D. This has to do with the idea of freedom and slaves. It's a connection of rattle snake Jim to im being black. They were looking out for Cairo to get to Pittsburg so they didn't float down into New Orleans where it would be deep into the South with slavery.
4. They give Huck money because they feel sorry for Huck and that they can't help him. He told them that his father was sick and so it's ironic because you'd expect the bounty hunters to be mean and uncaring individuals. It shows that even though they're hunting black slaves they're not actually bad people.
5. The steam boat is like the destruction of nature by society. Society destroys nature. Individual vs. society conflict. The naturally created raft stands for people, and the industrial created steamboat is like the society which ruins peoples ability to be good regardless of what is expected.
6. He started writing but didn't like where the story was heading so he stopped writing until he took a trip down the Mississippi where he found more inspiration. It helped him to explain more of the hypocricy in the society and slavery in the south. He began to write again.
7. They seem to have a romantic view of life and death. There house is fancy and neatly decorated with poety and depressing paintings of war. They also have a book on family medicine and Friendship's offering. They're hypocrits because even though they are in a feud with a different family, the Sheperdson's, they act as if nothing is wrong.
8. Huck slyly got Buck to remind him of what his name is which represents the theme of gullibility. The way the Grangerfords act represents the theme of appearance vs. reality because they act as if nothing is wrong even though they're fighting with a different family. The Grangerford's sense of romanticism represents the conflict between realism and romanticism.
9. Huck doesn't understand jokes about the bible, he takes things too seriously which can connect back to his lack of imagination. He doesn't know very much about the bible so he isn't sure wether it's a joke or not. Moses~motif.
10. The hogs seem to go to the church everyday, while christians just go there when they have to. The Shepherdsons and Grangerfords go to church with guns and listen to a preacher talk about brotherly love. They discuss how much they enjoyed it, yet after they leave the church they proceed to continue their death-causing feud.
11. It symbolizes romanticism. They fight against eachother even though they're not really too sure why anymore. It's unnecessary. It's like Romeo and Juliet where the Capulets and the Montague families clash.
12. The raft stands for freedom outside their corrupt society. One would think that a bed or a warm house would be better, but from their own perspective they would rather be free on the river where they're not limited by expectation or rules.
13. Their nudity represents freedom, and so when they strip off their clothes, they strip off the society. The raft is already symbolic for freedom but their clothes are the final suggestion saying that they are through with the societies rules. The clothes are the society that they are stripping off.
14. Huck knows that they're both not royalty but doesn't want to expose them because he wanted to avoid unnecessary quarrels. He learned from situations with his father.
15. I think the king and the duke are more shrewd than Huck. Niether one of the men take any notice to Jim, a runaway slave, yet Huck can tell that niether of the men are actually what they say they are. Huck also is mature enough to not start any unnecessary arguments with the 'royalty'.
16. The fake king and duke is a satire of Romeo and Juliet that mocks romanticism. Romeo and Juliet is a motif that represents society and the battle between romanticism and realism.
17. It's satirizing the gullibility of people. The pirate takes advantage of Huck and says he wants to go out and help other pirates if only he had some money.
18. It's saying some people are extremely fake and that some people think that they can get things they want by how gullible someone is.
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