Kakos' 4th Hour

Reactions and comments from my fourth hour Honors American Literature class.

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My favorite place in the world to be is underwater. My second favorite place is the front of a classroom.

Monday, February 13, 2006

Huck Starting Activities

Please design an opening activity for your assigned chapters. You can post discussion questions, provide links to relevant articles, paintings, or song lyrics, or design any other insightful activity that will get your classmates involved in discussing the text. Think about characters, symbols, themes, historical background, connections to contemoporary issues, or any other methods of analysis that engage you. Show off your creative side!

Remember that your post is due by 9 pm on the night before we discuss your assigned chapters.

12 Comments:

Blogger ldowns said...

One quote from Huck's dad reminded me of the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz "I'll lay for you, my smarty; and if I catch you about that school I'll tan you good" (p.22)It sounds cruel, but I'm rooting that Huck's dad is torn apart by a croc or something because that treatment just drives me nuts especially when he's complaining about a government that doesn't do anything for him only because he's a wasted dirtbag :[ For symbols and themes I'm seeing a pattern with the river and how that realtes to Huck. A river flows and like water it can trickle through cracks,etc. that reminds me of freedom or being free especially from the grasp of a irresponsible parent.

6:02 PM  
Blogger Caitlino said...

The idea of family, what it means and how it is shown in this story seems to be a large part of the story at this point. There are many references to either Huck's father, or the widow, or someone else who seems to be family. Today in America we like to think we can prevent child abuse and neglect, and seperate children away from parents who are abusive, though I think the country does a poor job of really changing a bad situation like this. In the book the judge overseeing the adoption of Huck by either the widow or Judge Thatcher says, "court's mustn't interfere and seperate families if they could help it; said he'd druther not take a child away from its father" (24).
Is either the safety of a child or the idea of a complete family, no matter how destructive it may, more important or more valued than the other in our society today?

8:28 PM  
Blogger JeffN said...

As usual, I'm going to use song lyrics to describe this book. And I'm not going to focus on the passage that I read today, but a theme that I am finding throughout the book and through our pre-book studies, and that is racism and hatred. Blacks are obviously portrayed as secondary characters, shown as the stereotypical unintelligent and usless animal; stupid enough to play tricks on. The lyrics of the song "Where Is The Love" by the Black Eyed Peas seemed very relevent for this topic.

4:51 PM  
Blogger JeffN said...

Where Is The Love?
by Black Eyed Peas

People killin', people dyin'
Children hurt and you hear them cryin'
Can you practice what you preach
And would you turn the other cheek

Father, Father, Father help us
Send some guidance from above
'Cause people got me, got me questionin'
Where is the love

What's wrong with the world, mama
People livin' like they ain't got no mamas
I think the whole world addicted to the drama
Only attracted to things that'll bring you trauma
Overseas, yeah, we try to stop terrorism
But we still got terrorists here livin'
In the USA, the big CIA
The Bloods and The Crips and the KKK
But if you only have love for your own race
Then you only leave space to discriminate
And to discriminate only generates hate
And when you hate then you're bound to get irate, yeah
Madness is what you demonstrate
And that's exactly how anger works and operates
Man, you gotta have love just to set it straight
Take control of your mind and meditate
Let your soul gravitate to the love, y'all, y'all

People killin', people dyin'
Children hurt and you hear them cryin'
Can you practice what you preach
And would you turn the other cheek

Father, Father, Father help us
Send some guidance from above
'Cause people got me, got me questionin'
Where is the love (Love)

Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love
The love, the love

It just ain't the same, always unchanged
New days are strange, is the world insane
If love and peace is so strong
Why are there pieces of love that don't belong
Nations droppin' bombs
Chemical gasses fillin' lungs of little ones
With ongoin' sufferin' as the youth die young
So ask yourself is the lovin' really gone
So I could ask myself really what is goin' wrong
In this world that we livin' in people keep on givin'
in
Makin' wrong decisions, only visions of them dividends
Not respectin' each other, deny thy brother
A war is goin' on but the reason's undercover
The truth is kept secret, it's swept under the rug
If you never know truth then you never know love
Where's the love, y'all, come on (I don't know)
Where's the truth, y'all, come on (I don't know)
Where's the love, y'all

People killin', people dyin'
Children hurt and you hear them cryin'
Can you practice what you preach
And would you turn the other cheek

Father, Father, Father help us
Send some guidance from above
'Cause people got me, got me questionin'
Where is the love (Love)

Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love
The love, the love

I feel the weight of the world on my shoulder
As I'm gettin' older, y'all, people gets colder
Most of us only care about money makin'
Selfishness got us followin' our wrong direction
Wrong information always shown by the media
Negative images is the main criteria
Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria
Kids wanna act like what they see in the cinema
Yo', whatever happened to the values of humanity
Whatever happened to the fairness in equality
Instead in spreading love we spreading animosity
Lack of understanding, leading lives away from unity
That's the reason why sometimes I'm feelin' under
That's the reason why sometimes I'm feelin' down
There's no wonder why sometimes I'm feelin' under
Gotta keep my faith alive till love is found

Now ask yourself
Where is the love?
Where is the love?
Where is the love?
Where is the love?

People killin', people dyin'
Children hurt and you hear them cryin'
Can you practice what you preach
And would you turn the other cheek

Father, Father, Father help us
Send some guidance from above
'Cause people got me, got me questionin'
Where is the love (Love)

4:52 PM  
Blogger CaylaB said...

As I was reading, I was thinking about how/if our country has taken any drastic measures against child abuse. So, I looked up the Child Protection from Domestic Violence Act. This act states that any physical or mental abuse or threats are considered acts of domestic violence and should be taken into serious consideration before the courts as to guardianship. It does not state, however that children have to be removed from an abusive situation. It is all up to the courts so if a judge like the one in Huck Finn decides that he doesn't want to split a family, he wouldn't nesicarily have to.
This is scary to me. How many children are still living in an abusive situation in our country? As many as the system has saved, how many are left behind?

8:53 PM  
Blogger nathank2 said...

"Sometimes I lifted a chicken that warn't roosting comfortable, and took him along. Pap always said, take a chicken when you get a chance, because if you don't want him yourself you can easy find somebody that does, and a good deed ain't ever forgot. I never see pap when he didn't want the chicken himself, but that is what he used to say, anyway."
This passage really stood out to me. Huck's dad is a bad person, but Huck still learns a good lesson from him. I think that Twain is trying to show that there is a little good in everybody and if you want you can find it if you keep an open mind, which is what Huck does. Are there other reasons Twain includes this passage? Is there really good in everyone?

8:15 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

As I was looking on the internet, I found portraits that Mark Twain asked a painter named S.J. Woolf to paint of him. They spent a long time talking about how it should look, the setting, what aspects should be involved, etc. And Mark Twain seemed very unconcerned about his appearance. One painting of him is even done in his messy bedroom. The only thing he did care about was his hair. He wanted it to be depicted perfectly in the picture, although I would never think his hair would be a particularly appealing feature. The other painting was done in his living room.
"It was there as a usual thing he would sit after lunch and smoke and dream. On one side of the room was a large organ, and often during the sittings either his daughter or secretary would play. Music seems to appeal to him, rather from the associations it recalled than on its own acount; and often when some old ballad or war song was played, a peculiar look would steal across his face, and his eyes would fill with tears.... But that seemed to be especially characteristic of him--no matter how deep the thought that engaged his attention, by a peculiar process of mental conjuring he changed his appearance, or perhaps his point of view, so as to make it present a lighter side."
(http://www.twainquotes.com/WoolfPortraits.html)

How does Mark Twain's appearance compare with Walt Whitmans?
Why would Mark Twain's hair be his main interest in his appearance? Does it show a uniqueness or protest to conformities?
Why would Mark Twain want one of his paintings to show his messy bedroom and him working in his bed?

9:06 PM  
Blogger Caitlino said...

Huck truly shows the basic human principles of truth and goodness, he shows his innocence and acts honestly and with only the best intentions. On the other hand the duke and king act out of their own greed and will sacrifice anything to make money. These two extremes come into close contact in the story, and seem to be quietly battling each other. Is this Twain's way of showing a battle between good and evil, or is he trying to illustrate something else? Why does he continually bring up the symbolism of greed, honesty, and innocence in this story?

7:55 PM  
Blogger CaylaB said...

While reading these past chapters, I couldn't help but note a tone of abolishionalism(is that a word?. Between Mary Jane who sympathized with the split slave family and Jim standing up to the King and the "hare-lip" asking "how is servants treated in England? Do they treat 'em better 'n we treat our niggers?"(Twain 190).

Could it be possible that Twain disagreed with slavery and his undertoned notes in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" are his way of stating his point?

8:50 PM  
Blogger nathank2 said...

Throughout the story but especially in this reading, I felt that Twain is posing the age-old question of nature vs. nurture. "I tried the best I could to kinder soften it up somehow for myself, by saying I was brung up wicked, and so I warn't so much to blame; but something inside of me kept saying, 'there was the Sunday school you could a gone to it.'" It seems like Twain says that nature is prevailing. Is this connected to his disapproval of slavery? Does he think that all men should be able to realize it is bad even during the time period?

7:29 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

When Huck graples with his conscious about "right" and "wrong," how does it show Huck's true feelings for the morality of owning slaves?

"I got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me, all the time, in the day, and in the night-time... [and] I couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him," (P. 235).

After Huck discovers that Jim has been sold, he attempts to pray and comes to the conclusion that he would go to hell in order to save Jim. But Huck finds that has grown fond of Jim and feels sympathy when he becomes "a slave again all his life, and amogst strangers, too," (P. 233). He even agrees to rescue Jim. Yet, he thinks saving Jim is wrong because society inplanted that notion in his head.

How do we contemplate "right" and "wrong" in our own lives?
How do we listen to the voices of society and how do we allow them to influence our lives?

8:31 PM  
Blogger JeffN said...

One idea that my discussion group was discussing was the idea about success. How do we define sucess? Do we define it on a moral basis or on a societal scale? Were the Duke and King successful?

3:47 PM  

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