Name and describe the specific traits that each possesses that makes him or her not an admirable person. Name and discuss the specific traits that each possesses that makes him or her admirable. Mark twain was able to find humor in situations that most people would regard as serious. Discuss the qualities huck posesses which are necessary for survival on the frontier. River ? what does the reader infer about twain 39 s attitude towared slavery and racism? discuss how the river provides freedom for huck. What is civilization in the mind of huck? discuss how huck grows as a person what life lessons does he learn from his encounters on the river? although mark twain, in his introductory notice to the novel, denies that there is a moral or motive in the story, the work itself contradicts its author.

What does twain admire in a man and what is he contemptuous of? this novel is also a satire on human weaknesses. What evidence do you find of twain 39 s cynicism? discuss three recurring motifs any idea, object, feeling, color, pattern, etc. How does huck search for a family? what does he find and what does he learn? how is huck 39 s trip down the river actually a passage into manhood? how would you defend huckleberry finn against charges of being a racist novel? huckleberry finn has been called the great american novel. Discuss why this masterpiece is banned mostly in christian academies and in all black institutions. Explain how the american dream is or is not achieved by three characters in this novel.

Discuss how huck displays several textbook characteristics of the child of an alcoholic. Discuss the events that disgusted and depressed him, the coping skills that he learned, and his actions and the circumstances for such. Picaresque is a word used to describe a character who comes from a low class of society, is poor, lives by his/her wits, travels, and has eposodic adventures. Using specific examples and quotes from the novel, explain how huck is a picaresque figure. If you had to name a modern day huck finn who would it be? explain how huck 39 s loss of innocence as a boy is symbolic of america as the country moves towards the civil war. What do you think makes this novel an important record of american culture? point out the weak and strong character traits in huck.

Family Values Essay Topics

How do his character and personality compare with those of tom sawyer? lionel trilling says that huck possesses a sense of humor. Consider techniques such as: figures of speech, language, narrative techniques, sentence structure, diction, organization, syntax, detail, structure, imagery, irony, and tone. How does mark twain create a humorous effect exaggeration, irony, satire, understatement ? how does twain use satire to expose and criticize human failings? discuss jim as a christ figure. As a way of illustrating his theme, twain deliberately sets certain events with huck and jim on the river and others on the shore. Compare and contrast the major events on the river with those on the shore and develop a supportable thesis for why you think he makes the choices he does.

All Ivy Writing Services Review

How do these choices subtly reinforce his theme? back up your thesis with specific quotes and detailed explanations. Discuss how twain criticises the values of southern society by showing the difference between huck 39 s acquired values and his own innate sense of goodness. Discuss the theme of individual conscience verses society and how it relates to the theme of freedom in the novel. In some ways huck 39 s story is mythical but it is also an anti myth a challenge to the deceits which individuals and cultures use to disguise their true natures from themselves.

In the midst of this deceitful culture, huck stands as a peculiarly honest individual. Huck is born into nature, but is morally influenced by society.how does the book show huck 39 s development into trusting his natural morals again? discuss historical revisionism and whether huck finn should be part of a high school curriculm. The overall american critical reaction to the publishing of the adventures of huck finn in 1885 was summed up in one word: trash. Clemens cannot think of anything better to tell our pure minded lads and lassies, he had better stop writing for them. The public library committee of concord, massachusetts excluded the book as a dangerous moral influence on the young. Defend or refute the position that the novel is indeed trash with evidence from the text to support your claim. How did twain write about himself through the characters huck finn and tom sawyer as well as through many others? huck finn is a thirteen year old boy.

Academic Reading And Writing By Stephen Bailey

Why does twain use a child as the center of consciousness in this book? in using a child protagonist, twain is able to imply a comparison between the powerlessness and vulnerability of a child and the powerlessness and vulnerability of a black man in pre ndash civil war america. Huck and jim frequently find themselves in the same predicaments: each is abused, each faces the threat of losing his freedom, and each is constantly at the mercy of adult white men. As we see in huck rsquo s moral dilemmas, however, jim is also vulnerable to huck, who, although he occupies the lowest rung of the white social ladder, is white nonetheless. Twain also uses his child protagonist to dramatize the conflict between societal or received morality on the one hand and a different kind of morality based on intuition and experience on the other. As a boy, huck is a character who can develop morally, whose mind is still open and being formed, who does not take his principles and values for granted.

Blood Transfusion Review Article

By tracing the education and experiences of a boy, twain shows that conclusions about right and wrong that are based on logic and experience often stand at odds with the society rsquo s rules and morals, which are often hypocritical rather than logical. What effect does this usage have on the reader? does it make the novel less of an artistic achievement? twain rsquo s use of dialect, which has proved controversial over the years, lends to the overall realism and vividness of huckleberry finn. Because it is sometimes difficult to decipher the character rsquo s speech while reading, we are almost forced to read aloud: at the very least, to read this novel, one has to be able to ldquo hear rdquo the voices in one rsquo s own head. Performance is important in this novel, as tom sawyer rsquo s follies and the duke and the dauphin rsquo s cons demonstrate. Furthermore, in the world of the novel, the way in which a character speaks is closely tied to that character rsquo s status in society. Huck, who was born in poverty and has lived on the margins of society ever since, speaks in a much rougher, more uneducated sounding dialect than the speech tom uses.

Phd Dissertations Online Health

Jim rsquo s speech, meanwhile, which seems rough and uneducated, is frequently not all that different from huck rsquo s speech or the speech of other white characters. In this way, twain implies that it is society, wealth, and upbringing, rather than any sort of innate ignorance or roughness, that determines an individual rsquo s educational opportunities and manner of self expression. At the beginning of the adventures of huckleberry finn, the river is a symbol of freedom and change. Huck and jim flow with the water and never remain in one place long enough to be pinned down by a particular set of rules.

Compared to the ldquo civilized rdquo towns along the banks of the mississippi, the raft on the river represents an peaceful, alternative space where huck and jim, free of hassles and disapproving stares, can enjoy one another rsquo s company and revel in the small pleasures of life, like smoking a pipe and watching the stars. As the novel continues, however, the real world beyond the mississippi rsquo s banks quickly intrudes on the calm, protected space of the river. Huck and jim come across wrecks and threatening snags, and bounty hunters, thieves, and con artists accost them. Although the river still provides refuge when things go wrong ashore, huck and jim rsquo s relation to the river seems to change and become less friendly.

After they miss the mouth of the ohio river, the mississippi ceases to carry them toward freedom. Instead, the current sweeps them toward the deep south, which represents the ultimate threat to jim and a dead end for huck. Just as the mississippi would inevitably carry huck and jim to new orleans where miss watson had wanted to send jim anyway , escape from the evils inherent in humanity is never truly possible. Curiously, some lies, like those huck tells to save jim, seem to be ldquo good rdquo lies, while others, like the cons of the duke and the dauphin, seem to be ldquo bad. Rdquo what is the difference? are both ldquo wrong rdquo ? why does so much lying go on in huckleberry finn ? 2.

What is the importance of family structures? what is their place in society? do huck and jim constitute a family? what about huck and tom? when does society intervene in the family? 3. The revelation at the novel rsquo s end that tom has known all along that jim is a free man is startling. Is tom inexcusably cruel? or is he just being a normal thirteen year old boy? does tom rsquo s behavior comment on society in some larger way? 4.