Dialectic Journal #2 (Chapters 16-30)

Chapter 17

p.76: "They was different from any pictures I ever see before; blacker, mostly, than is common. One was a woman in a slim black dress, belted small under the arm-pits, with bulges like a cabbage in the middle of the sleeves, and a large black scoop-shovel bonnet with a black veil, and white slim ankles crossed about with black tape, and very wee black slippers, like a chisel, and she was leaning pensive on a tombstone on her right elbow, under a weeping willow, and her other hand hanging down her side holding a white handkerchief and a reticule, and underneath the picture it said 'Shall I Never See Thee More Alas'."

p.78: "Poor Emmeline made poetry about all the dead people when she was alive, and it didn't seem right that there warn't nobody to make some about her, now she was gone; so I tried to sweat out a verse or two myself. but I couldn't seem to make it go, somehow."

p.80: "Each person had their own nigger to wait on them --Buck too."

Comments & Questions

The first quote stood out to me because of the intense description Huckleberry Finn went in to, regarding a picture hung on the wall. I also found the sentence structure Mark Twain used interesting, due to its long run on structure. The second quote was surprising, because it showed Huck Finn's character, and how he showed sympathy to a girl he knew nothing about. The third quote, portrays american history. The white family Huck was staying with all had African American servants waiting on them; this was very common for the era the book was written in.

Chapter 20

p.98: "The women had on sun-bonnets; and some had linsey-woolsey frocks, some gingham ones, and a few of the young ones had on calico. Some of the young men was barefooted, and some of the children didn't have on any clothes but just a tow-linen shirt."

Comments & Questions

This segment illustrates american history. For a middle to lower class society during this era, these are things that the people would be found wearing.

Chapter 22

p.111: "...afraid you'll be found out to be what you are -- cowards --"

Comments & Questions

I think this quote could be used as a theme for the entire book, Huckleberry Finn. Huck running  away from the problems at home, Jim abandoning the family he waits upon, and the two kings who lie about their pasts, and steel from innocent people, all show  cowardly characteristic traits.

Chapter 25

p.123: "I'm a nigger. It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race."

Comments & Questions

This phrase is a very strong depiction of the feelings and lifestyle of an African American person. They lived their lives by white people making them feel as if their existance was a burden on earth.

Chapter 26

p.131: "No! A sevant ain't nobody there. They treat them worse than dogs."

p.135: "By-and-by I heard the kind and the duke come up; so I rolled off of my pallet and laid with my chin at the top of my ladder and waited to see if anything was going to happen. But nothing did."

Comments & Questions

The first quote presents american history, and gives a visual for how servants were traited in comparison to how people treated their dogs. In the second quote, Mark Twain uses syntax; how he ends the thought with the short phrase 'But nothing did', directly ends the situation, and allows the author to effectively progress to the next situation.