Day 5

Huck and Jim tell each other stories (pg 52-53) What do you notice about Huck and Jim’s speech?

Style? Pacing? Tone? Emotion?

What does the style remind

you of?

“I hear old missus tell de wider she gwyne to sell me down to Orleans, but she didn’ want to, but she could git eight hund’d dollars for me…I lit out mighty quick, I tell you” (50) What is Jim’s motivation for leaving?

Can we sympathize with that concern?

“Yes; en I’s rich now, come to look at it. I owns myself, enI’s wuth eight hund’d dollars” (54) Thinking bigger picture, what does it mean to “own yourself”?

(*cough* *cough* humanity?)

“I warn’t afraid of him telling the people where I was” (49) Why would Huck trust Jim not to tell if he asked him to?

“But you wouldn’t tell on me ef I ‘uz to tell you, would you Huck?” (50) Why would Jim be willing to trust Huck?

“it was pretty broad day; so I made Jim lay down in the canoe and cover up with a quilt” (58) Why is Huck willing to help hide Jim?

(Selfish or caring? We’ll have to decide later.)

“Then I told him the whole thing, and he said it was smart. He said Tom Sawyer couldn’t get up no better plan than what I had” (50) What did the widow think of Huck’s learning?

What did Pap think?

How does Jim seem different as an adult figure in Huck’s life?

“’Come in, Huck, but doan’ look at his face – it’s too gashly.’ …Jim throwed some old rags over him” (57) What is the significance of covering up a dead man’s face?

What is Jim trying to do for Huck here?

(*cough* *cough* Reverence for the Dead)

“for I warn’t going to let Jim find out it was all my fault, not if I could help it” (59) Why does Huck hide the evidence?

“I wouldn’t ever take a-holt of a snakeskin again with my hands, now that I see what had come of it. Jim said he reckoned I would believe him next time” (59) What did Huck have to do before he was willing to believe Jim?

Afterward, though, does Huck seem to recognize the reality of what Jim told him?

When he sneaks into town, what does Huck learn?

What do Jim and Huck do to survive?

What adventures does Huck want to go on? Why?

Keep a log of the steamboat shenanigans.

Day 6

I will send you to talk to the Counselor about registration

While you wait, you should work on:1. Character & Archetype worksheet

a. May be done with a partner

b. Use evidence from Ch 1 - 13

c. Look at pg 70 & 71 for lessons from the widow, Pap, and Jim.

d. Will turn in at the end of class

2. Read Ch 14 – 16

a. Do this individually

b. Will discuss on Thurs

3. Make up Episode 1 Quiz (1/20) & Journal Prompts

How are Huck and Jim different?

Huck is white. Jim is black.

Huck is an adolescent (13). Jim is an adult (30).

Huck has money. Jim is a slave.

What would happen to Huck if he returned? To Jim?

What unites Huck & Jim?

Language (dialect)

Being away from society

Depending on each other for survival

Moral lessons

White plantation owners

White farmers

White business owners

White laborers

Anyone not white and male

Younger sons of landed gentry Come to the South to try to make their fortune

British Romantic authors Part of traditional education for rich young men

Idealized the knights of the Middle Ages

Carry-over ideas Must defend honor and good name above anything else

Extreme version of Emerson’s “be a great man”

Lead to foolishness of Civil War

Watch for Walter Scott

Continue to take note of Huck’s “adventures”Why does he get himself into these situations?

Why is Jim more hesitant to follow him?

Keep thinking about what lessons Jim is learning

Day 7

Is that true?

Are people more willing

to defend their physical

well-being than to

defend their ideas?

Why do we praise

soldiers but criticize

protestors?

1. What parts of society is Twain commenting on? What’s the big moral message?

2. What is Huck learning? How is he developing as a hero in each stage of his journey?

1. Read your handouta. What is it asking you to look for?

2. Find the quotes in the Huck Finn booka. What’s the context? Read a couple sentences before/after the quote.

3. Answer the questions in 1-2 sentencesa. Be prepared to share.

“Do you reckon Tom Sawyer would ever go by this thing? Not for pie, he wouldn’t. He’d call it an adventure” (72) Why does Huck want to explore everything?

Where does Tom get his ideas from?

“I doan’ want to go fool’n ‘long er no wrack. We’s doin’ blame’ well, en we better let blame’ well alone, as de good book says” (71) Why is Jim reluctant to join in?

Why would he go with Huck anyway?

“I begun to think how dreadful it was, even for murderers, to be in such a fix. I says to myself, there ain’t no telling but I might come to be a murderer myself yet, and then how would I like it?” (76) What danger are the robbers in?

“I wished the widow knowed about it. I judged she would be proud of me for helping these rapscallions, because rapscallions and deadbeats is the kind the widow and good people takes the most interest in” (79) Why would Huck want the widow to know about his efforts?

“but who in the dingnation’s a-going to pay for it?” (79)

“Great guns! Is he her uncle? Looky here…dart you out to Jim Hornback’s and he’ll foot the bill…Tell him I’ll have his niece all safe before he can get to town” (79) What convinces the watchman to check out the wreck?

“She was very deep, and I see in a minute there warn’tmuch chance for anybody being alive in her” (79) Why did Twain name the boat Walter Scott, fill it with greedy

robbers, then sink it?

Twain will start making some really pointed social commentary

Who is he calling out? Why? Who does he blame for society’s problems?

When does he use characters to stand for certain groups? What are their beliefs?

Remember, he’s writing after the Civil War but sets his story before. This is past and present.

Scott’s View, Scottish Borders Region

Pap – “Pap always said it warn’t no harm to borrow things if you was meaning to pay them back some time” (70)

The Widow – “but the widow said it warn’t anything but a soft name for stealing, and no decent body would do it” (70)

Jim – “Jim said he reckoned the widow was partly right and pap was partly right; so the best way would be for us to pick out two or three things from the list and say we wouldn’t borrow them any more – then he reckoned it would be no harm to borrow others” (71)

“Dat truck dah is trash; en trash is what people is dat puts dirst on de head er dey fren’s en makes ‘em ashamed” (89) Why was Jim so scared over Huck?

Why did Huck try to play it off like a joke?

Huckleberry = white trash

“It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a n---; but I done it, and I warn’t ever sorry for it afterward, neither” (89) Why would Huck hesitate to humble himself to Jim?

Why does he? What has he realized about Jim and their relationship?

Of Mice and Men – Ch 3 “’Funny,’ said George. ‘I used to have a hell of a lot of fun with ‘im.

Used to play jokes on ‘im ‘cause he was too dumb to take care of ‘imself. But he was too dumb even to know he had a joke played on him.’”

“One day…I turns to Lennie and says, ‘Jump in.’ An’ he jumps. Couldn’t swim a stroke. He damn near drowned before we could get him. An’ he was so damn nice to me for pullin’ him out. Clean forgot I told him to jump in. Well, I ain’t done nothing like that no more.”

1. Reverence for the dead

2. Common sense morality

3. How to be a decent human being

The Bad Boy Huck = Likes to be away from society. Has to see things for himself before he will believe him. The main character who is growing through the story.

The Bad Man Pap = Kept Huck from his freedom. Does NOT protect Huck’s innocence. Selfish desire for money and control.

The Mentor Jim = An outcast as a run away slave. Praises Huck. Teaches Huck moral lessons.

Day 8

You may use notes

If you don’t understand a question, ASK for help

You have 20 minutes

When you’re done Turn it into the basket

Quietly work on something else

“because he’d be a free man the minute he seen it, but if he missed it he’d be in a slave country again and no more show for freedom” (91)

“I tried to make out to myself that I warn’t to blame, because I didn’t run Jim off from his rightful owner” (91)

“when he got enough he would buy his wife, which was owned on a farm close to where Miss Watson lived; and then they would both work to buy the two children” (92)

“you’s de bes’ fren’ Jim’s ever had; en you’s de only fren’ ole Jim’s got now” (92)

“says to myself, hold on; s’pose you’d ‘a’ done right and give Jim up, would you felt better than what you do now? No, says I, I’d feel bad – I’d feel just the same way I do now” (94)

“I wouldn’t bother no more about it, but after this always do whichever come handiest at the time” (95)

(*cough* *cough* Great American Paradox)Social law says Jim is property, and Huck did wrong by helping him try to get his freedom.

Human law says Jim is a person with a family, and Huck did right by being his friend.

What will Huck decide?Stick with the messages he’s gotten since birth

Or decide for himself based on what he can learn and feel

For now…wait and see.

Huck and Jim have left the river How do they act differently when back in society?

Characters & Social Commentary When we meet new characters, what are their values or beliefs?

What does Twain seem to be saying about them? What is destroying them? What tone does Twain use toward them?

Remember sinking Romanticism & swinish religion!