Final Exam Essay

Whenever I read a good book, I feel like I’m spying on someone else as they do life—casually observing their activities, vicariously experiencing their triumphs, failures, joys, sorrows, friendships and relationships. And when I finish a really good book, I’m often almost sad as I become attached to the characters in the books. I hope that you had at least one experience like that through reading the literature that we’ve experienced together in class. All of the pieces were selected carefully as I had these questions in mind for us to explore:

What can literature tell us about the human experience? In other words, how does literature explore common experiences of every day people and how does this exploration affect the reader?

Which came first—the literature or the society/community in which it is set? In other words, what relationship do you think literature and the community or society to which the author belongs have? Does the literature grow from the society? Or is it unaffected by society? If Faulkner grew up in Maine, would he still write the same kinds of stories? If O’Connor was a native Californian, would she still write about the same subjects? If Twain were from Florida and had never traveled or left the area, would his writing change in any way?

There is an old adage that good authors write what they know. In other words, their literature grows out of their own life experiences. Do you agree or disagree with this position?

I think that if you think about the class and the activities we have done, you would agree that it has been organized around exploring these three questions. So I ask you, one more time before we part company, what do you think?

So here’s the actual assignment for your final exam: you have to select one of the questions—the one that you instantly have an answer to, can think of the most examples of, etc—and write a well-developed essay which cites specific examples from the literature that we have read in support of your position. I do not want you to do any more outside research. I want you to rely on your own opinion and what you have learned through your research through the class. Of course, because you will be providing specific examples from the texts, and possibly from other sources, you will need a works cited page (don’t forget our friend http://citationmachine.net/) Of course you could always cut and paste citations from previous works cited pages also.

Happy writing—

Mrs. M

Due: Your Final Exam Essay is due Monday, December 17 by 10:30 am. You may not submit your essay via email.

Reading Assignment--11/13/07

Remember that we don't formally meet tomorrow. You are to meet with your group and discuss Chapters 16-30. Please finish the book by Monday, November 19, 2007. Here is the reading quiz that goes with that section of the book.

Reading Quiz:


1. At whose house was Jim when Huck came back to the raft?
2. How much did the king get for Jim?
3. How much was the reward for Jim?
4. What is Silas' wife's name?
5. Who do Mr. and Mrs. Phelps think Huck is?
6. Who was coming from town in a wagon?
7. What did the stranger do to Aunt sally that made her almost hit him?
8. What happened to the king and the duke?
9. What two clues assured Tom and Huck that Jim was in the shed?
10. How did Tom and Huck finally decide to free Jim?
11. What did Tom and Huck hear that made them stop talking about Jim's escape?
12. How many knives did Tom want Huck to "smouch"?
13. What kind of pie did Tom tell Nat to make?
14. How many tallow candles did tom steal?
15. Where do they keep the boots and rags, and pieces of bottles and wore-out tin things, and all such truck?
16. According to Tom, from where did William the Conqueror come, and on what ship?
17. What does "Maggoire fretta, minore atto" mean?
18. What was Jim to get instead of a rattlesnake?
19. What was Tom going to put in Jim's coffee pot?
20. What did Tom and Huck see dripping from the rafters , landing on plates and down the back of your neck?
21. What did Tom and Huck do with the sawdust?
22. What happened that alerted the farmers to Tom, Huck, and Jim's presence?
22. What was Jim wearing during the "evasion"?
23. Who went to get the doctor? Huck
23. Why?
25. Why didn't the dogs lead the farmers to Jim and the boys?
26. How much did the doctor say a nigger like Jim was worth?
27. How much money was waiting for Huck back home?
28. How did Huck's Pap die?

Discussion Questions--Chapter 16-30

We don't have class Monday, November 12 due to the Veterans Day Holiday. On Wednesday, November 14, my son is having a special program at his school in Pensacola that begins at 11:45. Your group needs to gather in the LRC (Library), the computer lab, around one of your lap-tops, at the local coffee shop etc. and answer the discussion questions that follow. A copy of them with your group members' names on them needs to be sent via email by midnight Wednesday night. I am enforcing the honor system and it will be very easy for me to tell if one person from the group answered the questions for the group and posted them for the group. Please don't dissappoint me.

Discussion Questions for your Group

Chapter 16

Key Events:

Important passages (Be sure to include page number)

What importance does the night in the fog serve in the book? Discuss what happens in the fog, what the fog might symbolize, and what Huck realizes as a result of the experience.

Discuss the irony in the statement Jim makes about stealing his children. Why did Huck feel it was morally wrong for Jim to claim his children as his own?

Critics believe Twain stopped writing the novel for a few years after he finished Chapter 16. Why would this have been a difficult place to continue? How does the setting of the novel change at this point?

Chapter 17 – 21:

Key events:

Important passage (with page number):

Describe the Grangerford house. What is satirical about the furnishings, art, and poetry? What does this description say about the Grangerfords?

Twain employs satire throughout the novel to speak out against the hypocrisy and corruption in his society. In what way is the church service attended by the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons an attack on the religion of Twain’s day?

How is life on the raft in these chapters contrasted with life on the shore? What has the raft come to mean to Huck and to Jim?

Who joins Huck and Jim on the raft? Why doesn’t Huck expose them as frauds?

The story of Romeo and Juliet has now turned up twice. Where are the two references to Romeo and Juliet? Why do you think these references are in the novel?

Huck’s journey on the river is filled with adventures, but it is also a symbolic journey. What does his journey symbolize? What does the river symbolize to Huck and Jim? What changes on the river and on the shore as Huck and Jim travel deeper south? Cite specific examples from the text to support your answer.

Chapters 22 – 30:

Key events:

Important passage (with page number):

Questions:

Discuss the development of Jim’s humanity in the eyes of Huck. In what ways has Jim been dehumanized by society? How does Jim’s story about Lizabeth change this?

Twain is satirizing the lynch mob in these chapters. What does the scene with the mob and Sherburn’s speech about human nature reveal about Twain’s own ideas of mobs and society?

How does Huck feel about the duke and dauphin’s decision to con the Wilks? In what way is Huck less tolerant of their schemes? What does this change signify about Huck’s moral development?

The separation of families through the selling of slaves is a recurrent theme in the novel. What is Twain’s attitude about this issue?

Throughout the novel, Huck told stories or lies in a variety of situations. Discuss these times and how Huck’s idea of truth has changed.

Reading Quiz--Chapters 16-30

Due Tuesday, November 13, 2007 by midnight.

Copy and paste the following questions into MS Word or an email and answer them based on what you have read in the novel. Your answers are due by midnight on Tuesday.

1. What town were Huck and Jim looking for?
2. Why was Huck miserable?
3. How did the raft get destroyed?
4. What was Huck's pseudonym?
5. How did Huck find out his pseudonym after he'd forgotten it?
6. How did Stephen Dowling Bots Die?
7. Who was Col. Grangerfords oldest son?
8. At what time was Miss Sophia supposed to have her rendezvous?
9. With whom did Sophia Grangerford run off with?
10. Who wouldn't say, "dern the fog"?
11. The two men said that they were really…
12. How old was the imaginary boy named Ike?
13. How much did the King make at the camp meeting?
14. What play are the duke and the king rehearsing?
15. What is the "most celebrated thing in Shakespeare"?
16. Who Killed Boggs?
17. Colonel Sherburn isays that the average man is a ____________.
18. How much did "them rapscallions" take in in three nights?
19. Who does Huck say is Henry the Eighth's father?
20. Why did Jim feel bad about hitting his daughter?
21. What was Peter Wilkes occupation while he was living?
22. Who are Peter Wilkes' three nieces?
23. How much were the king and duke short of $6,000 in the basement?
24. Who told the girls the King was a fraud?
25. Where did Huck hide to eavesdrop on the king and duke?
26. Where did the King put the money?
28. Where did Huck stick the money?
29. Why was the dog howling in the basement during the funeral?
30. Whom did Huck say he had seen in the king's room? .
31. To where was Mary Jane going for 4 days?
32. In what town did the duke and the king play the "Royal nonesuch"?
33. Who was the man with the broken arm?
34. What did the king say was tatooed on Peter Wilkes breast?
35. What did Harvey Wilkes say was tatooed on his brothers breast?
36. What does the duke say is the one smart thing the king did, the thing that saved them?

Reading Assignment 11/5/07

Please read to Chapters 16-30 by Wed. November 14. And while we won't meet formally that day, please meet with your groups and discuss the questions I will post later. You will need to turn your discussion questions in for a grade via email by midnight November 14.

Reading Quiz--Due Monday by 6:00 am

Answer the following questions on the content of chapters 7-15. Cut and paste into Microsoft Word and send your answers via email as an attachment.

1. For what did Huck dive in the water?
2. What did Huck drop "so as to look like it had been done by accident?"
3. What was Huck's destination once he was in the canoe?
4. Why was the ferry-boat firing the cannon?
5. What did Huck find that made his "heart jump up amongst his lungs?"
6. Why was Jim afraid of Huck?
7. Why didn't Huck believe that bees didn't sting idiots?
8. What did Jim say that the little birds said?
9. Were they right?
10. How did the man in the house die?
11. What did Huck and Jim find sewed up in the lining of an old blanket overcoat?
12. After Jim got bit by the rattlesnake, what did he have Huck do with the rattles?
13. Why does Huck think that Jim got bit by the snake?
14. What two objects did they find in the stomach of the catfish?
15. Who is Sarah Williams?
16. Where is Sarah from?
17. What three ways did Mrs. Loftus ascertain Sarah's true gender?
18. What two items did Huck and Jim decide to NOT "borrow?"
19. According to Huck Finn, how much do steamboat captains make per month?
20. What's the name of the wreck?
21. According to Huck Finn, how many wives did Solomon have?
22. How many boxes of cigars did Huck and Jim get from the ferry-boat?
23. How did Louis the XVI die?
24. Where did Huck lose the raft?

Reading Assignment

Enough messing around. Let's knock this puppy out. By Monday 11/5 please have read through chapter 15 of Huckleberry Finn.