Wolfe CP English 9 C

Huck has ben my bestes fren fur awhile. I thot my life was a gonna be ova afta I ran away. Tank the ball o’ ox hare I got Huck. It’s hard goin’ and leavin’ yo family, but Huck helps me get thru dat. He helps me tho, and he is one smar cookie fo lie’n to dose men and sayin “Why would a nigger run south.” I was smar too one time when I was able to surviv in a swamp. I aint no fool tho. One time Huck tride to play a trik on ole’ Jim. I says, “En all you wuz thinkin ’bout wuz how you could make a fool uv ole JIm wid a lie. Da truck dah istrash; en trash is what people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren’s en makes ‘em ashamed.” Dis has ben a fun twip tho en’ i be have’n a good time. I mighta gotten mad one or too times, but it was nise. By en by, Huck is stil de bestes fren I got.

Passage: Last passage in chapter 29.

Q: Would you react like Huck did when the  robbers were able to get onto the raft?

Assignment 1: Mark Twain was born and raised in the slave state Missouri. He witnessed a brutal slave murder when he was at a young age. His family did own 20 slaves but this does mean that he hated black people and all slaves. He actually thought that black people were so much better than white people. In his 1835 letter Mark says, “I reckon I had better black in my face, for in these Eastern states, black people are considerably better than white people.” This doesn’t mean he is completely against racism though. He does show some racism in his 1872 book about “Roughing it”: “I am as uplifted and reassured by it as a mother who has given birth to a white baby when she was awfully afraid it was going to be a mulatto.” In conclusion, Mark Twain is more than less against racism and admires black people, but still makes some racist remarks.

Assignment 2:”Oh, come to the mourners’ bench! come, black with sin!(amen!) come, sick and sore! (amen!) come, lame and halt, and blind! (amen!).” Mark Twain uses satire and makes fun of religion in Huck Finn. In one scene he has in the church the people are hearing the preacher talk but not listening. They are just saying “amen” to everything and not listening.

Assignment 3: Do you think Huck is acting weird when he says that he should have turned Jim in?

1. Theme: Misunderstanding of religion

Passage:”Then Miss Watson she took me in the closet and prayed, but nothing come of it. She told me to pray everyday, and whatever I asked for I would get. But it warn’t so. I tried it. Once I got a fish-line, but no hooks. It warn’t any good to me without the hooks. I tried for hooks three or four times, but somehow I couldn’t make it work.

Response: This passage clearly exhibits the theme of misunderstanding religion. Prayer is supposed to be about spiritual things and not just asking for a gift. Huck does not know that and does not understand that. This shows that Huck really does not know much about religion because he has been in the world and wilderness a long time. Christianity is a big religion and Huck does not realize it, understand it, or care for it.

2. Passage:”I was just a-biling with curiosity; and I says to myself, Tom Sawyer wouldn’t back out now, so I won’t either; I’m agoing to see what’s going on here.”

Response: Huck is in a bost with robbers that could shoot and kill him if they saw him. But still, the thought of Tom Sawyer makes him go closer because, thats what Tom would do. This is such a big situation because there are many things on the line. Huck’s life, Jim’s life, them getting caught, and Jim getting sent to New Orleans. With all that on the line the last thing I would have done was gone closer to my possible death. I would be so scared there that I wouldn’t think, but Huck does and the first thing he thinks of is Tom. This proves that Tom is the one person he really admires.

3. Passage 1: “It’s a dead man. Yes, indeedy; naked, too. He’s ben shot in de back. I reck’n he’s ben dead two er three days. Come in, Huck, but doan’ look at his face- it’s too gashly” (Page 53)

Response 1: This shows how Jim cares about Huck and that is interesting and a possible changing part in the story.

Passage 2: “Some young birds came along, flying a yard or two at a time and lighting. Jim said it was sign when young chickens flew that way, and so he reckoned it was the same way when young birds done it” (page 48).

Response 2: This shows how superstitous Jim is and is he overly superstitious or not. This causes certain things to happen in the story.

Passage 3: “Then I told him the whole thing, and he said it was smart. He said Tom Sawyer couldn’t get up no better than what I had” (page 45)

Response 3: This is interesting that both of them think Huck is so smart.

4. Question 1: Does Huck’s admiration for Tom Sawyer lead him to make bad decisions?

Question 2: Do you think Huck is smart for trapping the robbers? Why?