12. "I was powerful glad to get away from the feuds, and so was Jim to
get away from the swamp. We said there warn't no home like a raft, after
all. Other places do seem so clamped up and smothery, but a raft don't.
You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft"(88). Discuss
the paradox. Furthermore, this excerpt from the final paragraph of
Chapter XVIII is significant in that it pertains to the major themes of
the novel. Explain.
-Whenever they are on the raft they have this feeling of freedom which
is a huge theme in this book since Jim is a runaway slave and Huck is a
child held captive with his father or forced into school. Huck is saying
that even on land he feels cramped and smothered which is
understandable because of the people. On the raft Huck is surrounded by
the people he wants to be around and away from the racist society on
land.
13. Huck and Jim's manner of dress on the raft is symbolic. What do clothes represent?
-Clothes represent civilization and overall society. Huck and Jim would prefer to just lounge around on their raft naked which is a symbol of their current state of freedom.
14. Why doesn't Huck expose the Duke and the King (Dauphin) as frauds?
-Huck didn't want to cause any quarrels.
15. Who is the most shrewd, the King and the Duke or Huck? Why? Give some examples.
-Huck. He doesn't expose the false royalty that they are traveling with and doesn't even tell Jim about what exactly is going on. Huck also gives up the tent on the raft so that the King and the Duke can hide from the storm. Huck also serves the royalty food with the help of Jim.
16. What does Twain satirize in the plan to present Romeo and Juliet? Discuss Romeo and Juliet as a motif.
- The King is going to be playing Juliet in the play which is a slight insult to the country people's intelligence. The motif of Romeo and Juliet relates to the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons episode earlier in the book.
17. Discuss the significance of the pirate and the revival meeting. What is Twain satirizing?
- While the king and duke come off as very evil people for scamming people at a church service, the crowd is mainly being satirized because they believe such a wild story.
18. Is Twain making a statement about society through the antics of the King and Duke? Explain.
-Yes! He's making society out to be very gullible and simple minded people. I have a feeling that he really did not like his travels to the south. It's either that or this is as close to the truth as he could get.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Friday, January 10, 2014
Huck Study Questions
1. Discuss the
significance of the fog incident and Jim's interpretation of it. "The
lot of towheads was troubles we was going to get into with quarrelsome
people and all kinds of mean folks, but if we minded our business and
didn't talk back and aggravate them, we would pull through and get out
of the fog and into the big clear river, which was the free states, and
wouldn't have no more trouble" (64). Consider the major themes as well
as foreshadowing.
-Jim is frightened that he is separated from Huck. This emotion strikes Jim because he is a slave on the run and Huck is his only chance of making it through slave country with out being caught. Jim also misses Huck though because he is his friend.
2. How does Huck feel about playing the trick on Jim? Comment: "It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn't sorry for it afterwards, neither" (65). How does this statement contribute to the overall meaning of the novel?
-Huck feels genuinely sorry for playing his many pranks upon Jim. One of the main themes in this book is slavery. This quote relates to that theme but in a very positive way since Huck is accepting Jim as a person who possesses actual feelings.
3. Discuss the significance of the following quotes from Chapter XVI:
"Jim said it made him all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom. Well, it made me all trembly and feverish, too, to hear him because I begun to get it through my head that he was most free -- and who was to blame for it? Why me. I couldn't get it out of my conscience, no how nor no way." (66).
-Jim feels excitement because of how close he is to freedom while Huck is slightly frightened by what might happen to him if he is caught helping Jim escape. Even though they haven't been caught yet he feels a sense of guilt in his conscience and this is due to his upbringing.
"Here was this nigger which I as good as helped to run away, coming right out flat-footed and saying he would steal his children -- children that belonged to a man I didn't even know; a man that hadn't ever done me no harm." (67). Explain the irony in this quote as well as the significance.
-Jim says that he would steal back his children from the man who bought them. This is just something that most fathers would do and Huck doesn't understand that the slave owner does exactly what he finds obscure. Slave owners are the people that take the children from parents they don't even know and the slaves are the people who did no harm to the slave owners.
"Well, then, says I, what's the use you learning to do right, when it's troublesome to do right and ain't no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?" (69).
-Huck is still young and currently having to make quick decisions to keep Jim and himself out of trouble. This is just representing his inexperience as a young man. He does make a good point though that either way the outcome will most likely be the same.
"Doan' less' talk about it, Huck. Po' niggers can't have no luck. I awluz 'spected dat rattle-snake skin warn't done wid its work." (70).
-Jim is referring to the bad luck of his people and the fact that his race was enslaved. Therefore as long as there's slavery his people can only possess bad luck.
4. Why do the bounty hunters give Huck money? What is ironic about their reaction to Huck's story?
-Because they believe Huck's lie about his family having small pox. Huck at first doesn't tell them his family has small pox, but when he does they tell Huck to lie and send him further down the river for help.
5. What does the destruction of the "naturally" created raft by the "industrially" created steamboat symbolize?
-The advancement of technology and transportation. When the steamboat crushes the raft it pretty much states that they way of transportation is not going to be an option sooner rather than later.
6. Speculate on why Twain put Huckleberry Finn aside for a few years at the end of XVI?
-Huckleberry Finn was beginning to sound a lot like his previous novel Tom Sawyer so he took some time off and traveled south. While on his travels he observed the ways of southern people and families. ex: Hatfields and McCoys.
7. Describe the Grangerford house. What is satirical about the furnishings, art, and poetry? What does this description say about the Grangerfords?
-Very large, fancy, guarded by a pack of dogs. The paintings are all about previous wars, the poem book that Huck finds is titled Friendship's Offering, and most of their furnishings are very old. Everything about their home is very old which basically says that some things never change.
8. The first part of Chapter XVII reveals an example of the theme of Huck playing on Buck's gullibility. Discuss this example as well as other examples of the novel's major themes evident in Chapters XVI & XVII.
-Huck uses the fact that no one knows him to his advantage as much as can. He tells people a different story every time he is questioned where he is from. All of his stories end with his family dieing. Because Huck is so young it's easy for him to mooch off of most people, so I'm going to say mooching is a theme in this book. Or at least getting what you can when an opportunity arises.
9. What does Huck's reaction to "Moses and the candle" indicate? Discuss the meaning of "Moses" as a motif in the novel.
- Moses represents Huck's religious position in this book since he is brought up more than any other religious figure. Huck's a very literal person so when asked a riddle he doesn't really know how to approach it. So instead he doesn't answer and comments with question to Buck.
10. What does Twain satirize in his description of the church service and the hogs that sleep under the floor?
-Both of the feuding families bring guns to church and the sermon that Huck attends is about brotherly love. The two families leave the church both agreeing that it was a great sermon.
11. What does the feud symbolize? Does this remind you of another famous piece of literature? Explain. Through the feud incident, Twain satirizes human traits and behaviors. Discuss.
-The feud alludes the actual feud between the Hatfields and McCoys. The tale also reminds me of Romeo and Juliet. Buck and a young lady from the Sheperdsons are quite in love but seperated by two their families.
12. "I was powerful glad to get away from the feuds, and so was Jim to get away from the swamp. We said there warn't no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so clamped up and smothery, but a raft don't. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft"(88). Discuss the paradox. Furthermore, this excerpt from the final paragraph of Chapter XVIII is significant in that it pertains to the major themes of the novel. Explain.
-Whenever they are on the raft they have this feeling of freedom which is a huge theme in this book since Jim is a runaway slave and Huck is a child held captive with his father or forced into school. Huck is saying that even on land he feels cramped and smothered which is understandable because of the people. On the raft Huck is surrounded by the people he wants to be around and away from the racist society on land.
-Jim is frightened that he is separated from Huck. This emotion strikes Jim because he is a slave on the run and Huck is his only chance of making it through slave country with out being caught. Jim also misses Huck though because he is his friend.
2. How does Huck feel about playing the trick on Jim? Comment: "It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn't sorry for it afterwards, neither" (65). How does this statement contribute to the overall meaning of the novel?
-Huck feels genuinely sorry for playing his many pranks upon Jim. One of the main themes in this book is slavery. This quote relates to that theme but in a very positive way since Huck is accepting Jim as a person who possesses actual feelings.
3. Discuss the significance of the following quotes from Chapter XVI:
"Jim said it made him all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom. Well, it made me all trembly and feverish, too, to hear him because I begun to get it through my head that he was most free -- and who was to blame for it? Why me. I couldn't get it out of my conscience, no how nor no way." (66).
-Jim feels excitement because of how close he is to freedom while Huck is slightly frightened by what might happen to him if he is caught helping Jim escape. Even though they haven't been caught yet he feels a sense of guilt in his conscience and this is due to his upbringing.
"Here was this nigger which I as good as helped to run away, coming right out flat-footed and saying he would steal his children -- children that belonged to a man I didn't even know; a man that hadn't ever done me no harm." (67). Explain the irony in this quote as well as the significance.
-Jim says that he would steal back his children from the man who bought them. This is just something that most fathers would do and Huck doesn't understand that the slave owner does exactly what he finds obscure. Slave owners are the people that take the children from parents they don't even know and the slaves are the people who did no harm to the slave owners.
"Well, then, says I, what's the use you learning to do right, when it's troublesome to do right and ain't no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?" (69).
-Huck is still young and currently having to make quick decisions to keep Jim and himself out of trouble. This is just representing his inexperience as a young man. He does make a good point though that either way the outcome will most likely be the same.
"Doan' less' talk about it, Huck. Po' niggers can't have no luck. I awluz 'spected dat rattle-snake skin warn't done wid its work." (70).
-Jim is referring to the bad luck of his people and the fact that his race was enslaved. Therefore as long as there's slavery his people can only possess bad luck.
4. Why do the bounty hunters give Huck money? What is ironic about their reaction to Huck's story?
-Because they believe Huck's lie about his family having small pox. Huck at first doesn't tell them his family has small pox, but when he does they tell Huck to lie and send him further down the river for help.
5. What does the destruction of the "naturally" created raft by the "industrially" created steamboat symbolize?
-The advancement of technology and transportation. When the steamboat crushes the raft it pretty much states that they way of transportation is not going to be an option sooner rather than later.
6. Speculate on why Twain put Huckleberry Finn aside for a few years at the end of XVI?
-Huckleberry Finn was beginning to sound a lot like his previous novel Tom Sawyer so he took some time off and traveled south. While on his travels he observed the ways of southern people and families. ex: Hatfields and McCoys.
7. Describe the Grangerford house. What is satirical about the furnishings, art, and poetry? What does this description say about the Grangerfords?
-Very large, fancy, guarded by a pack of dogs. The paintings are all about previous wars, the poem book that Huck finds is titled Friendship's Offering, and most of their furnishings are very old. Everything about their home is very old which basically says that some things never change.
8. The first part of Chapter XVII reveals an example of the theme of Huck playing on Buck's gullibility. Discuss this example as well as other examples of the novel's major themes evident in Chapters XVI & XVII.
-Huck uses the fact that no one knows him to his advantage as much as can. He tells people a different story every time he is questioned where he is from. All of his stories end with his family dieing. Because Huck is so young it's easy for him to mooch off of most people, so I'm going to say mooching is a theme in this book. Or at least getting what you can when an opportunity arises.
9. What does Huck's reaction to "Moses and the candle" indicate? Discuss the meaning of "Moses" as a motif in the novel.
- Moses represents Huck's religious position in this book since he is brought up more than any other religious figure. Huck's a very literal person so when asked a riddle he doesn't really know how to approach it. So instead he doesn't answer and comments with question to Buck.
10. What does Twain satirize in his description of the church service and the hogs that sleep under the floor?
-Both of the feuding families bring guns to church and the sermon that Huck attends is about brotherly love. The two families leave the church both agreeing that it was a great sermon.
11. What does the feud symbolize? Does this remind you of another famous piece of literature? Explain. Through the feud incident, Twain satirizes human traits and behaviors. Discuss.
-The feud alludes the actual feud between the Hatfields and McCoys. The tale also reminds me of Romeo and Juliet. Buck and a young lady from the Sheperdsons are quite in love but seperated by two their families.
12. "I was powerful glad to get away from the feuds, and so was Jim to get away from the swamp. We said there warn't no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so clamped up and smothery, but a raft don't. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft"(88). Discuss the paradox. Furthermore, this excerpt from the final paragraph of Chapter XVIII is significant in that it pertains to the major themes of the novel. Explain.
-Whenever they are on the raft they have this feeling of freedom which is a huge theme in this book since Jim is a runaway slave and Huck is a child held captive with his father or forced into school. Huck is saying that even on land he feels cramped and smothered which is understandable because of the people. On the raft Huck is surrounded by the people he wants to be around and away from the racist society on land.
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Huck episode outlines
Episode 1: Tom's Sawyer's gang
The widow Douglas is taking care of Huck and her sister, Miss Watson, schools him in book learning. They both teach him about religion. Huck sneaks out of his home with the troublemaker Tom Sawyer. The two play a trick on Jim which makes him believe he was rode around by witches. Tom shows the six other boys the hole in the side of the hill where they would make their hide out and form the Tom Sawyer Gang. The next day Huck talks about his father and their history. Tom calls Huck out on his unimaginative stories while they are playing with the gang. Huck believes Tom's stories about genies and tries to summon one through a lamp. Huck's starts to attend school and whenever he is tired he plays hooky. Jim has a giant ball of hair from an Ox's stomach that he performs magic with. Huck's pap shows up at the end of the episode in Huck's room.
Episode 2: Huck and Pap
Huck used to afraid of his Pap but now does not fear him as much. Pap is now 50 and out of sorts. He looks at Huck's condition with a sort of jealousy. He also disagrees with his book learnin' and sort of new found religion. When Pap asks about his fortune, he lies since he knows what his pap will do with it. Judge Thatcher is currently in possession of Huck's money. They take the ownership of Huck to court and Pap wins due to the fact that Huck is his flesh and blood. The next day Pap get's thrown in jail. The new judge then takes Pap to his home and "changes" him into a new man. That night Pap fell off the roof drunk and the judge loses all faith previously given to Pap.Huck is then moved out to Pap's house which was small cabin a couple miles out of town. Huck lives in this cabin sometimes days at a time but when he is outside he feels extremely free. Huck, while trapped saws an escape through the cabin wall underneath a table. Whenever Pap is around Huck he is either beating him, cussing, or ranting about the government. Pap has a dream and ends up in tears upon the floor from the fear of whatever is chasing him. After he wakes up, chasing Huck around the cabin swearing to kill him. Pap then passes out and Huck spends the rest of the night waiting for Pap to wake up with a gun. Pap wakes Huck up and asks why he's holding his gun. Huck says there was an intruder and that he couldn't budge him awake. Huck then checks the lines for fish and finds a small boat. He then hides it and returns home with his father. When Pap leaves for town Huck escape through his hole and takes some food with him. He later kills a pig and returns to the cabin to cut it up. He then frames his death and throws the pig into the river. He then waits in his canoe until Pap returns to his cabin. He lands on the Jackson islands and sleeps.
Episode 3: Jackson Islands
Huck wakes up the next morning to cannons firing across the water. This was apparently how they would search for submerged carcasses. Huck hides from the boat that is holding Pap, Judge Thatcher, Tom Sawyer, and some of Huck’s friends. He over hears them and finds out they believe he was murdered. Huck then spends three peaceful days alone on the island feasting on berries and smoking when he pleases. On the fourth day he finds Jim who believes that he is ghost. Huck learns that Jim ran away because he overheard Miss Watson talking about selling him into the South. They then take the canoe and provisions to a cave located in the middle of the island. Jim predicts it will rain and sure enough it does. They find a houseboat which was swept away by the flood and decide to see what they can scavenge from it. Upon entering they find a man who was shot in the back but they don't mind him and ransack the entire second floor. The next day Huck plays a prank on Jim by putting a dead rattlesnake in his bed. The prank gets a little more dangerous than they would like when the rattlesnakes mate bites Jim on the foot. Huck then decides to go ashore for information and dresses himself up as a girl. He arrives at a cabin where a middle aged woman is living. Huck does such a bad job trying to be a woman that the lady calls him out on everything he did wrong. She does give Huck information regarding her husband and his desire to go investigate the smoke on the island. She also tells him about the ransom for his old man who was accused of killing Huck and Jim who is, as we know, a run away slave. Huck leaves the house and gets Jim to pack up immediately.
Episode 4: The River
Huck and Jim travel by river day and night until they get to St. Louis. There they begin to take what they need so that they can survive on their raft. On a particularly stormy night they run into a steamboat that's run a ground. Jim insists not to board it but Huck says that it would be an adventure and that Tom Sawyer would do the same. Huck learns that there's a gang on board and that two members are planning on killing the third member of the group by letting him go down with the ship. Huck tells Jim and Jim tells Huck that their raft had begun to float away. The two head for the gang members boat and hide near it. The robbers place their stolen goods and head back into the boat for their "friends" share. Jim and Huck take the robber's boat and chase down their raft. Once they get their raft Huck boards a steamship run by a single man. Huck convinces the man to check the wreck. Jim and Huck sink the robbers boat and then go to sleep. They are astonished with the loot they have found and wait until nightfall to travel again. Huck passes time by telling stories about kings and ad-libbing some of his own stories in between. One night while traveling Huck and Jim get seperated in a thick fog. Huck reunites with the sleeping Jim. Huck tries to make him think that he had just dreamed Huck had been missing this whole time. Jim gets mad at Huck and Huck deeply apologizes to Jim for trying to fool him. They are now in search of the Ohio river since that is a border between slave and anti slave states. They see lights in the distance and Huck goes to investigate in the canoe. He runs into two slave hunters and convinces them that his family is aboard the raft and sick with small pox. The two men avoid the raft and advise Huck to lie about his families condition in order to get help. They both give him $20 and they carry on. They fear they have passed Cairo and stop for the night. They awake the next morning to find that their canoe has been stolen. They then take the raft which is later destroyed by a steamship. The two are separated yet again. Huck crawls upon land and ends up in someone's yard. He knows it's someone's yard because he is cornered by a pack of dogs.
Episode 5: The Feud
Huck is taken in and cared for at the Grangerford's mansion. Here he is introduced to a boy about his age whose name is Buck. The Grangerfords think he is apart of the family they've been at war with, the Shepardsons. Their walls are decorated with art work and poetry from a deceased daughter. Huck really doesn't feel like ever leaving this house. Huck holds a very high respect for Colonel Grangerford and the rest of Grangerford's family does the same. When Huck and Buck are out and about, Buck fires a shot at a boy named Harney Shepardson. He misses, but explains to Huck the feud between the two families and that he doesn't know how the feud even began. Huck attends church with the Grangerfords and listens to sermon about brotherly love while the two families hold their rifles between their knees. Huck is taken out to the swamp one day by the Grangerford's slave valet who claims to want to show Huck a pair of water moccasins. While in the swamp he is reunited with Jim. The next day Huck witnesses Sophia Grangerford and Harney Shepardson sneaking out into the woods. He also runs across Buck and a nineteen year old Grangerford in a gun fight. Both die and Huck flees to the raft with Jim because he is quite disturbed.
Episode 6: The Duke and the King
Huck and Jim continue to travel down the Mississippi. Huck, while on a solo adventure in the canoe, runs across two men fleeing from trouble. One is about 70 and bald with whiskers. The other is about thirty. Both men's clothes are tattered and dirty. The younger man claims to be a salesman of a product that would remove plaque from your teeth. Only problem is that it also removed tooth enamel. The king ran an A.A. club but when the town heard that he drank himself they decided they were going to run him out of town. After the two con artists hear each others stories, the younger man claims to be a Duke and gets Huck and Jim to wait on him. The older man claims to be the King Dauphin who has been wandering America for many years. So Huck and Jim treat both of them like royalty. Huck knows that they are in fact not royalty but doesn't say anything to prevent quarrel. When Duke and King ask Huck about Jim, Huck makes up a story about how he was orphaned and traveling with Jim. The Duke persuades the Dauphin to perform a play by Shakespear in the next town in order to make some money. They walk into a church revival going on in the middle of the woods with a couple thousand attendees. The Dauphin gets up and states that he is a pirate that has been saved by this church and is about to return to sea to save other pirates like him. The then give him money for his cause. The Duke the next day makes some handbills for the play.
Episode 7: Boggs, SHerman, The circus 21-23
They find that in the town the King and the Duke are performing their version of Romeo Juliet there is also a circus. As they walk through town they notice that there a lot of people loitering and some torturing the stray dogs. A drunk man know as Boggs rides through town stating that he has a grudge against Colonel Sherman, a southern gentleman. Sherman kills Boggs because he must protect his honor. A mob forms that wants to hang Sherman but he manages to talk the crowd out of it stating that there isn't a real man amongst them. Huck, the king, and the duke attend the circus. Huck is confused and doesn't understand when a man from the crowd jumps into the ring and begins to ride a horse standing up whilst shedding many layers of clothing. Huck believes that it would be terrible to be a ringmaster. The king and the duke's performance flops so they decide to make a new show strictly for men. The show sells but on the final night the men attend with pockets full of rotten vegetables. The "actors" leave before they can be assaulted. They continue downstream scamming every town they come across with new and different ideas.
Episode 8: Arkansas Funeral
The king and the duke hear about the death of Peter Wilks on a steamboat. The two men decide to assume the roles of Wilks's brothers to take anything possible from his family. The victims are three young girls. Huck's morals step in and he tells Mary Jane what exactly the two men are doing. She is the oldest of the sisters and Huck holds some deep emotional feelings for her. Huck is then almost killed when another couple of people come to town claiming to be the Wilks brothers. Huck then escapes after Peter Wilks body is dug up. Huck escapes the king and the duke but is shortly rejoined by them since they are fleeing from the townspeople. When they return to the raft Huck finds that Jim has disappeared. The con men decide to continue performing their royal non such plays down the river, but Huck decides go in search of Jim.
The widow Douglas is taking care of Huck and her sister, Miss Watson, schools him in book learning. They both teach him about religion. Huck sneaks out of his home with the troublemaker Tom Sawyer. The two play a trick on Jim which makes him believe he was rode around by witches. Tom shows the six other boys the hole in the side of the hill where they would make their hide out and form the Tom Sawyer Gang. The next day Huck talks about his father and their history. Tom calls Huck out on his unimaginative stories while they are playing with the gang. Huck believes Tom's stories about genies and tries to summon one through a lamp. Huck's starts to attend school and whenever he is tired he plays hooky. Jim has a giant ball of hair from an Ox's stomach that he performs magic with. Huck's pap shows up at the end of the episode in Huck's room.
Episode 2: Huck and Pap
Huck used to afraid of his Pap but now does not fear him as much. Pap is now 50 and out of sorts. He looks at Huck's condition with a sort of jealousy. He also disagrees with his book learnin' and sort of new found religion. When Pap asks about his fortune, he lies since he knows what his pap will do with it. Judge Thatcher is currently in possession of Huck's money. They take the ownership of Huck to court and Pap wins due to the fact that Huck is his flesh and blood. The next day Pap get's thrown in jail. The new judge then takes Pap to his home and "changes" him into a new man. That night Pap fell off the roof drunk and the judge loses all faith previously given to Pap.Huck is then moved out to Pap's house which was small cabin a couple miles out of town. Huck lives in this cabin sometimes days at a time but when he is outside he feels extremely free. Huck, while trapped saws an escape through the cabin wall underneath a table. Whenever Pap is around Huck he is either beating him, cussing, or ranting about the government. Pap has a dream and ends up in tears upon the floor from the fear of whatever is chasing him. After he wakes up, chasing Huck around the cabin swearing to kill him. Pap then passes out and Huck spends the rest of the night waiting for Pap to wake up with a gun. Pap wakes Huck up and asks why he's holding his gun. Huck says there was an intruder and that he couldn't budge him awake. Huck then checks the lines for fish and finds a small boat. He then hides it and returns home with his father. When Pap leaves for town Huck escape through his hole and takes some food with him. He later kills a pig and returns to the cabin to cut it up. He then frames his death and throws the pig into the river. He then waits in his canoe until Pap returns to his cabin. He lands on the Jackson islands and sleeps.
Episode 3: Jackson Islands
Huck wakes up the next morning to cannons firing across the water. This was apparently how they would search for submerged carcasses. Huck hides from the boat that is holding Pap, Judge Thatcher, Tom Sawyer, and some of Huck’s friends. He over hears them and finds out they believe he was murdered. Huck then spends three peaceful days alone on the island feasting on berries and smoking when he pleases. On the fourth day he finds Jim who believes that he is ghost. Huck learns that Jim ran away because he overheard Miss Watson talking about selling him into the South. They then take the canoe and provisions to a cave located in the middle of the island. Jim predicts it will rain and sure enough it does. They find a houseboat which was swept away by the flood and decide to see what they can scavenge from it. Upon entering they find a man who was shot in the back but they don't mind him and ransack the entire second floor. The next day Huck plays a prank on Jim by putting a dead rattlesnake in his bed. The prank gets a little more dangerous than they would like when the rattlesnakes mate bites Jim on the foot. Huck then decides to go ashore for information and dresses himself up as a girl. He arrives at a cabin where a middle aged woman is living. Huck does such a bad job trying to be a woman that the lady calls him out on everything he did wrong. She does give Huck information regarding her husband and his desire to go investigate the smoke on the island. She also tells him about the ransom for his old man who was accused of killing Huck and Jim who is, as we know, a run away slave. Huck leaves the house and gets Jim to pack up immediately.
Episode 4: The River
Huck and Jim travel by river day and night until they get to St. Louis. There they begin to take what they need so that they can survive on their raft. On a particularly stormy night they run into a steamboat that's run a ground. Jim insists not to board it but Huck says that it would be an adventure and that Tom Sawyer would do the same. Huck learns that there's a gang on board and that two members are planning on killing the third member of the group by letting him go down with the ship. Huck tells Jim and Jim tells Huck that their raft had begun to float away. The two head for the gang members boat and hide near it. The robbers place their stolen goods and head back into the boat for their "friends" share. Jim and Huck take the robber's boat and chase down their raft. Once they get their raft Huck boards a steamship run by a single man. Huck convinces the man to check the wreck. Jim and Huck sink the robbers boat and then go to sleep. They are astonished with the loot they have found and wait until nightfall to travel again. Huck passes time by telling stories about kings and ad-libbing some of his own stories in between. One night while traveling Huck and Jim get seperated in a thick fog. Huck reunites with the sleeping Jim. Huck tries to make him think that he had just dreamed Huck had been missing this whole time. Jim gets mad at Huck and Huck deeply apologizes to Jim for trying to fool him. They are now in search of the Ohio river since that is a border between slave and anti slave states. They see lights in the distance and Huck goes to investigate in the canoe. He runs into two slave hunters and convinces them that his family is aboard the raft and sick with small pox. The two men avoid the raft and advise Huck to lie about his families condition in order to get help. They both give him $20 and they carry on. They fear they have passed Cairo and stop for the night. They awake the next morning to find that their canoe has been stolen. They then take the raft which is later destroyed by a steamship. The two are separated yet again. Huck crawls upon land and ends up in someone's yard. He knows it's someone's yard because he is cornered by a pack of dogs.
Episode 5: The Feud
Huck is taken in and cared for at the Grangerford's mansion. Here he is introduced to a boy about his age whose name is Buck. The Grangerfords think he is apart of the family they've been at war with, the Shepardsons. Their walls are decorated with art work and poetry from a deceased daughter. Huck really doesn't feel like ever leaving this house. Huck holds a very high respect for Colonel Grangerford and the rest of Grangerford's family does the same. When Huck and Buck are out and about, Buck fires a shot at a boy named Harney Shepardson. He misses, but explains to Huck the feud between the two families and that he doesn't know how the feud even began. Huck attends church with the Grangerfords and listens to sermon about brotherly love while the two families hold their rifles between their knees. Huck is taken out to the swamp one day by the Grangerford's slave valet who claims to want to show Huck a pair of water moccasins. While in the swamp he is reunited with Jim. The next day Huck witnesses Sophia Grangerford and Harney Shepardson sneaking out into the woods. He also runs across Buck and a nineteen year old Grangerford in a gun fight. Both die and Huck flees to the raft with Jim because he is quite disturbed.
Episode 6: The Duke and the King
Huck and Jim continue to travel down the Mississippi. Huck, while on a solo adventure in the canoe, runs across two men fleeing from trouble. One is about 70 and bald with whiskers. The other is about thirty. Both men's clothes are tattered and dirty. The younger man claims to be a salesman of a product that would remove plaque from your teeth. Only problem is that it also removed tooth enamel. The king ran an A.A. club but when the town heard that he drank himself they decided they were going to run him out of town. After the two con artists hear each others stories, the younger man claims to be a Duke and gets Huck and Jim to wait on him. The older man claims to be the King Dauphin who has been wandering America for many years. So Huck and Jim treat both of them like royalty. Huck knows that they are in fact not royalty but doesn't say anything to prevent quarrel. When Duke and King ask Huck about Jim, Huck makes up a story about how he was orphaned and traveling with Jim. The Duke persuades the Dauphin to perform a play by Shakespear in the next town in order to make some money. They walk into a church revival going on in the middle of the woods with a couple thousand attendees. The Dauphin gets up and states that he is a pirate that has been saved by this church and is about to return to sea to save other pirates like him. The then give him money for his cause. The Duke the next day makes some handbills for the play.
Episode 7: Boggs, SHerman, The circus 21-23
They find that in the town the King and the Duke are performing their version of Romeo Juliet there is also a circus. As they walk through town they notice that there a lot of people loitering and some torturing the stray dogs. A drunk man know as Boggs rides through town stating that he has a grudge against Colonel Sherman, a southern gentleman. Sherman kills Boggs because he must protect his honor. A mob forms that wants to hang Sherman but he manages to talk the crowd out of it stating that there isn't a real man amongst them. Huck, the king, and the duke attend the circus. Huck is confused and doesn't understand when a man from the crowd jumps into the ring and begins to ride a horse standing up whilst shedding many layers of clothing. Huck believes that it would be terrible to be a ringmaster. The king and the duke's performance flops so they decide to make a new show strictly for men. The show sells but on the final night the men attend with pockets full of rotten vegetables. The "actors" leave before they can be assaulted. They continue downstream scamming every town they come across with new and different ideas.
Episode 8: Arkansas Funeral
The king and the duke hear about the death of Peter Wilks on a steamboat. The two men decide to assume the roles of Wilks's brothers to take anything possible from his family. The victims are three young girls. Huck's morals step in and he tells Mary Jane what exactly the two men are doing. She is the oldest of the sisters and Huck holds some deep emotional feelings for her. Huck is then almost killed when another couple of people come to town claiming to be the Wilks brothers. Huck then escapes after Peter Wilks body is dug up. Huck escapes the king and the duke but is shortly rejoined by them since they are fleeing from the townspeople. When they return to the raft Huck finds that Jim has disappeared. The con men decide to continue performing their royal non such plays down the river, but Huck decides go in search of Jim.
Monday, January 6, 2014
Huck questions
1. What kind of men do Huck and Jim find on the steamboat? Why are the men there?
Gang members, Murderers, highwaymen. They were looting the steamboat but have turned on one of the gang members.
2. What is the name of the boat Huck and Jim land on? Why is this funny?
The Walter Scott. It's the name of a famous Scottish writer, poet, and playwright. Mark Twain was probably influenced by his work.
3. Discuss the difference between "real" adventures and Tom's adventures?
There's actual danger involved in "real" adventures while Tom's adventures are more made up and comprised from previous literature that Tom has read.
4. What is the plan once they reach Cairo?
"Borrow" things from the townspeople.
Gang members, Murderers, highwaymen. They were looting the steamboat but have turned on one of the gang members.
2. What is the name of the boat Huck and Jim land on? Why is this funny?
The Walter Scott. It's the name of a famous Scottish writer, poet, and playwright. Mark Twain was probably influenced by his work.
3. Discuss the difference between "real" adventures and Tom's adventures?
There's actual danger involved in "real" adventures while Tom's adventures are more made up and comprised from previous literature that Tom has read.
4. What is the plan once they reach Cairo?
"Borrow" things from the townspeople.
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