Chapter 1
p.1: "You don't know about me, without you have read a book by the name of 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer', but that ain't no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly."
p.1: "The Widow Douglas, she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn't stand it no longer, I lit out.
Comments & Questions
The first quote I found specifically interesting, because it is different from any other phrases I've read in books; Mark Twain, the author of the novel, refers to himself through the eyes of the main character, Huckleberry Finn. The second quote indirectly describes the rugged, uneducated, and barbaric qualities of Huckleberry Finn.
Chapter 4
p.12: "Oho-o. I think I see. You want to sell all your property to me, not give it. That's the correct idea. "
p.13: "He said there was a spirit inside of it, and it knowed everything."
Comments & Questions
Both of these quotes show the unsophisticated aspects of Huckleberry Finn. Through the words of Judge Thatcher, Huck Finn's mistaking of selling versus giving is emphasized; this confusion adds to the other details Mark Twain uses to present this young boy as an uneducated individual. Also, by Mark Twain using first person point of view, Huck Finn is able to present himself using misspellings and other grammatical errors.
Chapters 6 & 7
p.20: "... a man's own son, which he has had all the trouble and all the anxiety and all the expense of raising."
p.24: "I wanted an axe, but there wasn't any, only the one out at the wood pile, and I knowed why I was going to leave that."
Comments & Questions
I found the first quote, spoken by Huck Finn's father, ironic and kind of funny; his father is complaining about how the government is trying to take away his son, who he believes he put so much time and effort into raising. His dad was a drunk? Who left him alone, and in the care of Miss Watson? The second quote seemed to foreshadow the plan Huck Finn used to escape captivity from his father.
Chapter 11
p.45: "So I said it wouldn't be no use to try to play it any longer, and I would just make a clean breast and tell her everything, but she mustn't go back on her promise."
Comments & Questions
When Huck says "play it any longer", he is referring to lying; this is one of the first steps he makes to act clean and end his mischievous ways. This quote explains one of the important and repeated themes in the book: deceit.
Chapter 15
p.61: "I jumped into the canoe and run back to the stern and grabbed the paddle and set her back a stroke. But she didn't come."
Comments & Questions
I comprehended this sentence as Mark Twain using syntax to enhance the uniqueness of the novel. The text in the novel is written how it would be said if it were Huck Finn talking. Twain continually uses long, flowing sentences followed by short, incomplete sentences.By doing this, the point gets across much more effectively to the reader, in a way that Huck would present it.
This is really good it gives great incite of how the book can be interpreted very differently in some parts
ReplyDeleteway too vague for credit :-( Be very specific and refer to concrete elements in the blog posts, then add to them.
DeleteWhat you took note of in the first quote is something we'll discuss this year about several other pieces as well. The "persona" is the one through whom the author tells the story. In some stories the persona is the author...but in others, like this one, Huck is the persona and Twain--the author--is separate. A professional author does these sorts of things on purpose and our task in AP Language is to figure out WHY they make these decisions.
ReplyDelete