Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Blog Spot 2: Huck Finn (Ch.13 - 17)

In Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck, the protagonist, Huck, is greatly influenced by four people: Widow Douglas, Tom Sawyer, Pap, and Jim.

Widow Douglas directly influences Huck by telling him he needs to have an education, to be proper, and to believe in God.
Widow Douglas influences Huck indirectly by Huck taking Widow Douglas’s advise and go to school and getting his education.
A quote that goes with how Widow Douglas influences Huck directly is; “because I don’t take no stock in dead people,” on page 2. Huck is saying that he doesn’t believe in Moses. A quote that goes with how Widow Douglas influences Huck indirectly is; “I had been to school most all the time, and could spell, and read, and write just a little, and could say the multiplication table up to 6 x 7 = 35…..” on page 11. This is saying that Huck is taking Widow Douglas’s advice and going to school.
Tom Sawyer influences Huck by showing him to go on adventures and to be reckless and to lie a lot.Tom Sawyer influences Huck indirectly by Huck going away from home and taking risks while he is with Jim and lying about things during his time with Jim. A quote that goes with how Tom influences Huck directly is; “We stop stages and carriages on the road, with masks on, and kill the people and take their watches and money. Tom was talking about how he and his robbers are going to take a risk and “kill” people when they actually don’t, which was on page 6. A quote that indirectly influences Huck is “Well” says I, a-blubbering, “I’ve told everybody before, and then they just went and left us,” on page 68. Huck is lying to the men that stopped him while he was on the boat, saying that pap had the small pocks.
Pap, Huck’s dad, influences him in a real bad way by always getting drunk, “borrowing” things which is just stealing, and not being educated. Pap indirectly influences Huck by Huck “borrowing” things when he is with Jim and telling him that it wasn’t stealing and by skipping school. A quote that shows how Pap directly influences Huck is “Your mother couldn’t read, and she couldn’t write, nuther, before she died. None of the family couldn’t, before they died. I can’t; and here you’re a-swelling yourself up like this.” Pap is describing how nobody in their family had an education and he shouldn’t either and this was on page 15. A quote that shows how Pap indirectly influences Huck is “Whenever I got uncommon tired I played hooky, and hiding I got next day done me good and cheered me up,” this is on page 11. This is showing that Huck doesn’t want an education.
Jim influences Huck directly by being superstitious, starting a foundation of English, and getting an education from past history.
A quote that shows how Jim directly influences Huck is “And he said that handling a snake-skin was such awful bad luck that maybe we hadn’t got to the end of it yet,” this is on page 40. This is saying that Jim thinks touching the snake-skin is bad luck, he is superstitious. In conclusion, without these key influences in his life, Huck would be a very different person.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Huck Finn Response (Ch. 1 - Ch. 12)

Paragraph1: In the book, Huck Finn for short, so far there is a boy named Huck Finn. He lives with a lady named Widow Douglas. He doesn't really like all the things she makes him do like go to school and learn about God and other stuff like that. Her sister Miss Walton has a slave named Jim and he basically does everything she tells him, considering he is a slave. Huck's father returns for is money but he doesn't know that Huck gave all the money to Judge Thatcher. Eventually Huck runs away to Jackson island and fakes his death. He also finds Jim on the island too. Huck and Jim find a dead body that was shot and naked in a cabin. Huck's dad goes to look on the island for Huck but he can't find him but he thinks Jim killed him. In chapter 11 Huck dresses up like a girl so that nobody knows who he is in the town. But the woman's house he goes into, she finds out that he is a boy but she doesn't know that it is Huck. The woman tells him that her husband and some other men are going to the island to find Jim because people are offering a 300 dollars to the person who finds Jim. Now Huck went back to Jim and they are now on a boat trying to get away and hide from the people trying to get Jim.





Paragraph 2: I don't really care for the book but I am starting to get into it. I don't like how they use the "N" word so much and how Huck thinks God isn't real and that he wants to go to hell and stuff like that, it kind of bothers me alot. I liked Of Mice & Men better because it was shorter and I could understand what was going on. I understand what's going on in Huck Finn but I understand Of Mice & Men more though. Even though I haven't read the whole book yet, Of Mice & Men has a better theme.