Caveat: Be sure to read all of this post as it contains two individual assignments.
Well. I had beautifully written, accurately summarized, carefully documented lecture notes on Realism and Mark Twain. However, in the great computer crash of 2007, they were rendered unrecoverable, as evidenced by the error message that I have received numerous times as I have attempted to recover them. In the absence of said notes, I am reminded that students have brains too and that they are capable of reading information, synthesizing and summarizing it. So I decided to give you the sources that I used and encourage you to use your brains. So here they are:
http://web.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap5/5intro.html
http://www.ncteamericancollection.org/amer_realism.htm
http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/oal/lit5.htm
All these site, in some way, place Mark Twain on and within the literary continuum. After you read through them, and the first six chapters (you should have already read 4) of Huck Finn, give me a 150-200 word paragraph in which you discuss the ways that you see the elements each of these articles discuss beginning to emerge in Huck Finn. Due Wednesday.
Also, in class tomorrow, we will be having a long delayed conversation about those first four chapters of Huck Finn. Here are the questions that we will be addressing in our conversations. I'd like for you to spend some time collecting your thoughts and come armed and dangerous with your answers to the questions. You are required to post answers to your favorite of the list.
Here they are:
1. What do you think about the warning that Twain opens Huck Finn with? What purpose do you think it serves? Why is it there?
2. What is your first impression of Huck? Why?
3. Discuss Hucks living situation. What affect does this have on you the reader? Does it make you sympathize with him more or not? Why?
4. Twain chooses a 13-year-old boy as narrator for his novel. In what way does this help to accomplish Twain’s purpose? Discuss the ways in which a young, innocent narrator can make a profound statement about the hypocrisy of his society.
5. Compare and contrast Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer. Consider how they treat Jim, their approach to problem solving, their way of planning the gang’s adventures, their attitudes toward books and learning, and their family experiences.
6. List both scenes which establish superstition as a theme in the novel. How do these scenes help establish character? How do they serve as foreshadowing?
7. Analyze the role of respectability in Tom Sawyer’s supposedly lawless gang. Why is it mandatory for each member to have a respectable family? Examine the idea that Huck, who has had more experience with breaking the law than any of the others, comes close to being excluded from the gang.
7.
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Question # 2
One of the things I found interesting about the way Twain crafted Huck Finn is that, as he narrates the story, the reader immediately picks up on how young Huck is, despite the fact that Twain doesn't come right out and specify in the beginning that Huck is a teenager. It's Finn's manner of speaking that gives him away, as well as the way in which he regards the adults in his life with a sort of begrudging respect. He's obviously at that rebellious stage in his youth when all that matters to him is his friends, more specifically Tom Sawyer, and being mischievous together, rather than all the teachings of religion and civility that the Widow Douglass is trying to instill him with. All in all, though, he comes off as a likable, good ol' backwoods character, and right away, I identified Huck as your typical misguided youth - a little mixed up, but good-natured nonetheless. And as much is to be expected as we find out more about Huck in that he has no family, spare an abusive alcoholic father, and has grown accustomed to a life of wandering on his own.
3.) Huck reluctantly lives with the Widow Douglass and her older sister. He is forced to learn how to read and spell in order to be “sivilized.” His only remaining parent, his father, does not have anything to do with him because he is an alcoholic and very abusive to Huck when he is sober. I am remorseful towards Huckleberry because he had to grow up with a violent drunk for a father and then was passed on to the widow. The widow has good intentions for Huck but he still is unsatisfied with his living situation.
5. I think there is huge difference between huck and tom. What I think is funny, never having read any Mark Twain’s books before this class, is that I thought tom would be more sophisticated than huck, being that he was raised in society and knew better. But in my option, huck is more responsibility and more mature than tom. Maybe it is because huck was not raised in society that he is this way. He matured and grew up fast. He had to in order to take care of himself I suppose. Huck is also nicer to jim than tom is. Tom and huck like to play pranks on people, but at least huck knows the difference between the appropriate and the inappropriate time to play pranks. For example, when tom and huck snuck out at night to start a gang, tom wanted to play a little prank on jim and huck said no it would be a bad idea. Huck was right there. Although tom has unique ideas for play, he doesn’t seem to plan them out well. And when huck ask questions dealing with why things are the way they are, tom calls huck an idiot and puts him down. Like when huck ask why they had to attack the Sunday gathering and tom said it wasn’t a Sunday gathering, that magicians made it look like a Sunday gathering, when in actuality, there were arabs and genies and bad people that they must attack. Tom and huck both disliked school, but huck decided that he would give it a try and that the more he went the less he disliked it. He wasn’t as hard as it used to be. They also both had their differences when it came to their families. Tom lived with his aunt and would, from my knowledge of tom, undermine her. Huck lived with the widow, whom he didn’t mind, but it was her sister that he hated. Huck also did not have a good relationship with his father and was relieved when he heard that he had turned up dead in the river somewhere. To his misfortune, huck’s father was not dead and one night, he showed up in huck’s bedroom.
Huck is a young boy who is without a family. His dad is a drunk and hasn't been seen in a long time. He was being taken care of by the Widow Douglas but Huck couldn't stand living with her and left. As a reader you almost feel bad for him. Without his parents, he is left on his own and in a rebellious stage you can anticipate the trouble he will find him self in. It does make me sympathize with him because he is so young and you almost want to beleive that he just doesn't know any better. His situation makes you understand why he would end up in trouble because he doesn't have any suitable role models.
3.
Huck Finn Obviously has had a rough life. He started out as being a bum and his father was a drunk and beat him when he was sober.Now he really doesnt know if his father is dead or still alive. Even though Huck is now living with the widow that is trying to get his life back on track i think that the reader should still sympathize with him or at least i do. He has had a life where the only real responsibility he had was to survive (which is a big responsibility. But now he is having to go to school and learn how to read and write and do math so it probably comes as a shock to him. So i think that as the reader you are suppost to feel sorry for huck.
#3
Huck lives with Widow Douglas and her sister Miss Watson because he has an abusive father. They try to teach him about the bible but he doesn't understand much of it. He is made to wear suitable clothes and keep them clean. Miss Watson is constantly trying to teach him spelling. He is supposed to stay around the house because they don't want him wondering off and getting into trouble. I sympathize with him because I wouldn't like to spend my whole day with two old women trying to teach me to spell and read. I think that young people should be allowed to stay outdoors and live. Sitting in a house all day and learning was a drastic change for Huck and he feels lonely because he's use to being free and is now stuck.
#1 I liked the warning that Twain opened Huck Finn with. It is a great attention getter and a very unique idea. I think it sets the stage for the enjoyable, layed-back attitude of the story by telling the readers that the work is solely for pleasure. Though Twain is trying to draw attention to the hypocritic society of the day, he does not want his audience to be looking for it. Rather, he wants them to enjoy an adventurous story, and unknowingly reach his purposed conclusion in the process.
Question 2.
My first impresion of Huck Finn is that he is most certainly uneducated. He is a very michevious young man who lokes to stir up trouble. you can tell this from the crazy things he does in the story. Huck obviuosly has some issues from the way he was raised with such abuse.I personally do sympatize for Huck even though most of his actions are misguided.
My first impression of Huck Finn, is that he is still young. You can tell that Huck is a young boy, maybe a young teenager, it is not quite clear in the first couple of chapters. He is probably around thirteen or fourteen, because he is rebellious and i remeber being rebellious, at around that age. He is probably like this, because his Dad is a drunk abusive father and he is trying to get out and away from his dad, so he wants to begin a life on his own,even though he has to live with Widow Douglas so he doesn't have to deal with his dad, which is his only family memeber anyways. He has friends like Tom Sawyer, that he hangs out with, and gets in trouble with, so in a way, he has a family of friends. I like Huck and think, in a way, besides his father and having no family, he is lucky because he gets to live in the open country and on the river. I wish that I could live on a river in the woods and hunt and fish all the time.
3. Huck lives with the widow Miss Watson. Miss Watson takes care of him because his father was thought to be dead. When he showed up however, he was still an alcoholic, which made for a bad situation for Huck because his father liked to beat him. I feel bad for Huck because it seems like there is no place he belongs. He's safe at Miss Watson's house, but things are a little too uptight for him. He's very unsafe with his father, yet for the most part he enjoys the lazy life of poverty, and not being told what to do.
Question #2
My first impression of Huck is that he is somewhat a lonely and lost young boy. Huck is trying to find where he fits in but has a hard time fitting in at all. For, example, Huck living with the widow Douglas, Huck feels out of place and uncomfortable in his own skin. From time to time Huck tries his best to stay at the widow's home but loses his patients with her because the atmosphere is too much for him to handle. Eventually oppurtunity arises for Huck to leave but at the same time he struggles to do so, bringing him back to suffer more of the widow's learnings for the day. Huck is truly a lost soul.
Tom Sawyers gang is more of a childlike group than an actual gang. When i started reading this story i was shocked when they said that they were going to rob people and kill all the men and they hold all the women ransom, expecially since they didnt even know what that meant. I was expecting them to actually kill and rob people. The boys all agree that the gang needs to be kept a secret, and if anybody tells, their parents will be killed. This proposes a problem with Huck because he does not have a family. Although he has had a lot of experience with the outdoors and trouble, they still say he can not join. That is until he says they can have Miss Watson, the woman he lives with. They all agree that "she will do." After reading a little bit more i came to realize that they do not actually rob and kill people they just pretend to.
I think that Mark Twain was a great writer who used many different ideas in his writings. He wrote like a realistic in many ways. First of all realism often has in depth characters. In The Adventures of Huck finn he does this. The story from what i have read has told a lot about huck Finn, not leaving out many things. He makes you feel like you know the characters. He shows the fact that writing was very regional during this time period. The whole sotry of huck finn takes place on the Mississippi river, which is where MArk Twain himself grew up. He took the experience he had from his childhood and put it into Hucks. Realsits also percieve that their characters are simple people and not gods. Huck does not have and extra powers or anything he is just a boy with problems. Finally he shows realism in the way that humans do not control their own destinies. He has showed this in the story when huck sold all of his money so that his dad would leave him alone. Huck made this choice because he knew his dad would be after the money and without it he didnt have anything else to take.
# 3
Huck lives with Widow Douglas & Miss Watson. Huck likes the women but hes used to not having any rules and he doesnt like that fact the the ladies tell him what to do and treat him like their his mother.I feel sympathy for Huck beacuse hes not happy with his living environment but i do agree with its the best place for him to live.
In viewing the chapters that we have read I have notice that as the realism is put in place that people do talk different and look different. One may be blessed with money and others or struggling. For example, Hucks father is disgustingly dressed in rags and criticizes the fact that Huck has chose such nicer ways and imprisons Huck for doing so. I believe that Huck's father is struggling with inner demions and perhaps blames Huck for his misfortunes. Also Hucks father mentions that the goverment is screwed up in a matter of speaking and I believe that this symbolizes that the goverment was only thinking on terms of themselves and not for the people. This was so true around that time. The mentioning of how a person of color can have such riches over Huck's father, Huck's father blames the state for this and because of the black man being able to be free for at least six months, he felt as if this was unfair and that the man should of already of been sold off. Again, this shows the world was beginning to change and feel differently about slavery in the South. Huck was a boy who decided that a better life would be of no money and felt freedom was key to a happy life. Although this may have been true he was easily discouraged at times when veiwing how his fathers's life was turning out. In outrage he would go out of his way to better himself in some way because of his father. For Huck's feeling of blacks I feel he in a way had a high respect for them on how they could make the best of their life and how they longed for great freedom. Huck inturn also had the same feelings but in a somewhat different way but could relate in a sense that he felt he was no different at all.
#2.
My first impression of Huck was about the same as May's. I realized he was uneducated by the way he talked and explained things. Also, I kind of saw him as a juvenille delinquent the way he seemed to rebell. After a while, I started to think that he was just a bored country boy who wanted to explore and venture off. He seems to want better for himself than he has had in the past, referring to the abuse and bad childhood. That is one trait I like about Huck, although he rebells, he still knows right from wrong and deep inside, I think he wants to do good things.
Quest. #2
My first impression of Huck Finn was that he was very young. The lauguage that was used in the story made him appear as a young boy pretending to be a grown man. It might be that he is trying to appear older because he has been neglected by his alcoholic father and wants to prove to people that he can take care of himself.
He was also characterized as a very adventurous boy. He appears to be very tough and not afraid of anything but by the end of the second chapter he is being frightened by ghosts. Huck Finn is a very likable character that has no secrets about what he is or who he is. He takes live one day at a time.
My first impression of Huck is that he's a lost boy only looking for a place to fit in the world. He has no family to think of execpt his alcoholic father . So he really has no one to look up to. All he has are his friends. He lives with Widow Douglass most of the time but he always seems to endup there. He seems like he is missing something in life. He is rebellious and likes to get into trouble with his friend Tom Sawyer.
Within the first 6 chapters you can already get an idea of the surrounding areas. During that time the majority of society lived on farms or small villages. You get the sense that where Huck Finn and Tom live it's a very small village. During the time of Twain most of the writers where much more conservative. Twain was a realist writer and in his writings and what we can see through starting out reading Huck Finn, Twain uses humor and language of that time. Many writers were expected to use proper english but in order get the real idea and feel of his story he used how the people really did talk in that area and time. Twain also did alot of work along the Mississippi River in his own life and has also incorporated it into Huck Finn. One important principle i found of realism was the characters. The characters are more significant then the plot itself and i can see how that is. Huck and Tom are just examples of that, their characters set the story. Each person has their own background and disputes that make the story what it is.
Story on the 3 Mark Twain links:
In the first Mark Twain article, it speaks of American Realism. I think Mark Twain just sat down and wrote his heart out; he was not afraid of his expressions of “nigger slang” being accepted by his peers. American Realism authors write about the pursuit for freedom and the transition from youth to maturity. Certainly “Huck Finn” fits the bill on these two items. American Realism also deals with American humor, folklore, slang and dialects. Here again, Mark Twain uses all of these points in his famous writing of “Huck Finn”.
In the second piece of writing we learn that Mark Twain was a true realist. The writings of his southern roots and Civil War days prove that Mark Twain was right there in the fix of things. He wrote about relationships between people and society. Characters in the story were the most important fixation for Mark Twain. His characters became real. They had an understandable relationship to nature, to each other, to their own past, and to their social class. A true realist writes to entertain and teach and this is definitely what Mark Twain done with his novel.
The last editorial was mainly a biographical article. I think Mark Twain writes about what he knows best-the Mississippi river and steamboats. He used his personal life and childhood experiences to create a novel loved by children as well as adults.
Huck lives with a widow and her sister. He lives with them because he ahd an abusive father and then he was homeless until his freind talked him into living with the widow. This does make me sympathize him becaue he doesnot have a real home nor a real family, so this does not give himmuch.
Just like his character Huck Finn; Mark Twain grew up around the Mississippi river. That is the first thing that tells me that he writes mainly about things he knows or has experienced; he was a realist. He wrote about real life, and became one of the most famous authors in the literary world for doing so. Most writers at that time still liked to sugar-coat their stories. He also liked to use different dialects and dialogue to help express the many different faces of society in the early nineteenth century. He uses a young boy named Huck Finn to illustrate his views on the world around him. Huck’s character is still innocent, but also coming to terms with how life can be and is not afraid to express what he thinks about a certain matter. In the story, he also incorporated a steam boat, which Mark Twain is familiar with because in his earlier years he had longed to be a steam boat pilot.
4. I think he chose a boy to narrate his novel because as I stated previously, he was still innocent, at least when it came to knowledge of the adult world, but was beginning to understand a little bit what was going on. He was hard-headed and did pretty much what he wanted to do and made up his own mind and didn’t let someone else influence him really. So it was easy to just “tell it how it is” through a boy’s eyes.
In only reading four chapters so far, I have already begun to see that realism is the writing. In the first article I sayings that an author will writing about something common to them, just like the Mississippi river is to Mark Twain. In more than one of the articles it states that realistic writing is to instruct and entertain. Twain does this in Huck Finn by opening the story with a warning, or notice, about that this story is not to find amoral, find a plot and not to find a motive. Also in only four chapters I have already been able to see that relationships between people and the society are being shown.
I see many of the elements listed in the links emergeing in Huck Finn. He is a perfect writer of realism because his story is based on a character that is the important part of it, which is an element of realism. He writed about what he knows and things he has experienced. He work on the Mississippi and it is a big part of the story. He uses dialect that he knew the people in the south used. He believed that people control their own destinies. In Huck Finn, Huck and Jim both take control of their destinies by leaving and going out on their own. He believes that the charaters act on circumstances in their life before they directly effect them. Like most realists he writes about typical things that would happen at that time in the environment and in peoples lives. Also, like many realists he just simply writes to tell a story about a boy living and reacting to things happening in his life.
Mark Twain perfectly portrays the Local Color Movement. He describes in detail all of the sights and sounds of life on the Mississippi, integrating the racial conflicts of the day into Huck's father's tirades. All of the attributes of a realistic writer are seen in Twain. His purpose of instruction and entertainment is clearly laid out in the notice at the beginning of Huck Finn where he tells his readers not to look for any motive, moral or plot, but he also subtly teaches his audience about the social and moral state of their society. He highlights the life and relationships of average people, probably the prototype of Southern life. He also emphasizes the setting of his story on the Mississippi River with detailed descriptions of the scenery, and he often scorns the idea of God. He portrays his characters as mortal people who make mistakes, have fun, and all in all live a typical normal life. He expounded on the various aspects of everyday life. He emphasizes the Southern culture through his use of vernacular.
After reading the first six chapters of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the articles, I realized that the rise of realism, so to say, was well represented in the story. In the articles it states how after the Civil War the United States’ economy grew rapidly. Businesses were growing and immigrants were coming in from all over the world for world. They were referred to as “cheap labor” which maybe wealthy business owners happy. By the early 1900’s half the population was concentrated in cities and the others still lived by the land. Huck’s father lived by the land and like many others who did back then; they were ridiculed and treated badly. Even the farmers of the day were treated with little respect and they were the ones feeding the community. Of course Huck’s father was a drunk and a jerk, so that really didn’t help him out much. He complained about the government and how it was unfair that they take away what’s rightfully his. Even though he made that comment in a drunken stupor, I think he had a point. The government and most of the millionaires at the time had the same idea; all they cared about was making money and they didn’t care who they had to step on to get it. It was truly a “dog eat dog world”. Also during this time, black slaves were given their freedom, the right to vote, and become a vital part of society. Huck’s father strongly disliked this idea and thought that black people were property of the white and should be sold. Huck on the other hand thought differently. He liked a respected the black community. I think he felt like he could relate to them. In a way he was enslaved to, and was enable to escape. And even though he was a very wealthy young individual, I think he believed that money was the root of all evil, for the most part I would say and the open road is truly the only way one should live. He believed that it was society and civilization that corrupted people, not the other way around. Although he liked some aspects of civilization, the warm beds, clean clothes, and a good meal every once in a while, he would rather be barefooted, fishin’ and huntin’, and sleeping under the stars.
I felt that alot of Mark Twains real life experiences and issues became a big part of his writtings. Mark was a realist because of the time periods of his writtings.During this time, the industrial revolution was going on and i think it had a major influence in his work. Also during his time there was over-populated housing from the Civil War, In the book Huckleberry Finn, Huck had a housing problem. He was on his own till he moved in with Widow Douglas beacuse of his abusive father.Also, Mark worked on boats and thats how he came up with the name Mark Twain.Mark grew up in the South ( a river rat) and in the book Huck was a southern river rat as well.In the story there is works of slavery in the South which was a big issue when Mark wrote Huckleberry Finn. Mark used alot of humor in his stories with was popular in his day to intrest people and he has humor towards his ideal of the community and how he pittyed it.
Question #3. Discuss Hucks living situation. What affect does this have on you the reader? Does it make you sympathize with him more or not? Why?
Huck lives with Widow Douglas and it seems as though his father has influenced his growing up a lot. He seems able to "survive" by himself. He knows how to build fires and catch fish with line, he knows how to survive in the wilderness and does not seem to need anyones help. However, there is the widow douglas who he now lives with, she is trying to mold him into the "son she never had" She wants Huck to have school iand religion to up and be a "respectable southern gentlemen." The way his lifestyle is makes me sympathize with him a little more, Huck pretty much has to decided the way he wants his life by himself. He has to teach himself the difference between right and wrong. The only blood relation in his life seems to be his wack drunkin father and his holyer than though aunt.
#2
from the get go you notice huck is a guy that can take care of himseld to a certain extent. living with the widow not knowing about his father being dead or alive. that is a lot for a 13 year old to deal with. him beinig sane just empresses me.
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