Catcher and Huck Finn

            I have finally finished The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and have now moved onto The Catcher In The Rye. I have not ventured very far into the latter, but I already like it better The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This is mainly due to the ease of reading, which can be traced back to where the books take place: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is in the south and The Catcher In The Rye takes place in the north. The different dialect in these two regions of the country accounts for the ease of reading, and is why I prefer Salinger’s novel to Twain’s.

            The diction is not the only reason why I prefer The Catcher In The Rye to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: I can relate to Holden much more than Huck. Although both characters deal with the pressures and problems of society, Holden is easier to sympathize with because I have never had to journey down the Mississippi River with a runaway slave (yet), but I have had to deal with annoying people and situations—much like Holden does. I also really like how blunt Holden is about everything that goes on around him. “I hate this” and “He is annoying” and “He is a phony” just cracks me up. If Holden does not like you, he will let you know!

            With that being said, however, I believe Holden is extremely lost. He is always criticizing the situation and other people because he cannot figure out who he is yet. He is grasping to find his identity. He continually puts others down to make himself higher. Instead of waiting to judge someone or trying to look at things in a different light, he automatically goes to the negative. This is a bad habit, and could be due to all the traumatic things that he has gone through. Holden is a dynamic character in comparison to Huck, and is more relatable. I suppose I should read more about Holden!

Themes in Huck Finn

When Huck dresses up as a girl, he is caught. This symbolizes when you try to hide who you truly are, society will figure it out for you and catch you in your lie.  This can be seen a lot today in high school. Many people are afraid to condemn their friends for something they say or do, they try to fit into the trends they see, and believe what they are told. Don’t cheat yourself by trying to fit into what you think is the best. Make up a new mold.

The scene where Huck and Jim find a dead body in a house, Jim tells Huck to go away and not look at the body. Jim decides to take care of the body because he doesn’t want Huck to see the face of the man. In this scene, Jim wants to protect Huck from this specific danger of the world. Jim cares about Huck, and he doesn’t want this young boy to see this. Jim takes on a fatherly role, which is even more evident because the body was pap.

Humans want others to be brought down to their own level of stupidity. We like to believe we are the best ones out there, and when we do something that is stupid we want others to experience the same thing so they are also brought down. This is shown in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn when the Duke and Dauphine go around to a town ripping people off by making them pay for a show that is only two minutes long. People feel so idiotic they paid for this show, they tell other people to see so they are all on the same level.

Superior and Inferior - Themes of Huck Finn

Today in class, Mr. Delacruz asked us to come up with an episode from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that related a meaning Mark Twain was trying to convey throughout the book. Because Natalie and I are—admittedly—not very far in the book, we went with a few adventures in the beginning that we felt conveyed one of the themes about society Twain was trying to communicate to the reader: when we, as humans, believe we are superior to others based on arbitrary measures such as race, wealth, eye color, sexuality, etc., we are actually the inferior ones because we are unable to grasp the fact humans are all the same no matter our differences.

This message can be symbolized by two instances in the very beginnings of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The first episode we took a look at was at the end of chapter four when Huck gives Jim a fake quarter in hopes that the ox hairball would divulge Huck information about his pap. The hairball ‘says’ that Huck’s pap has two angels, a white one, which is good, and a black one, which is evil. We felt this symbolized the thoughts of the southerners at that time: blacks were inferior to whites. White people believed blacks were an abomination to the Earth, and whites were the best creatures to have graced this planet. By putting themselves on a pedestal above blacks, white people were unable to see that, in reality, they were the ones that were evil instead of the black slaves.

Our views are supported in the last few pages of chapter six when pap begins to drunkenly rant about how terrible the government is for letting a black man in Ohio vote. Pap couldn’t believe something like this could ever happen.  In protest, pap was going to abstain from voting for a country that would allow such a thing. This strengthens the theme we came up with because pap cannot believe a black person has the right to vote somewhere in America. Chattel. A slave can vote! Pap in unable to consider this in his feeble—and mainly intoxicated—mind. It is preposterous! By believing he is better than the voting nigger—it is extremely odd using this word—pap is in fact degrading himself as a human being.

This theme is extremely relevant in today’s world, and especially in Dewitt. Many of my friends, who will rename unnamed, are very bigoted and are quick to stereotype. Ignorance, societal grooming, and incompetence to understand morals are the biggest culprits. My friends inherit their beliefs from their parents, which is sad because people should think for themselves and not base their own thoughts off of what other morons tell them to believe. I can remember one instance when someone made a joke about someone with a disability. Everyone around began to laugh and further the original joke. I was the only one that didn’t laugh, and in fact, I yelled at this person for being so ignorant. What do they gain by putting others down? How are they much better? I was disgusted. They had such a closed mind, and it was apparent in this situation. By putting this disabled person down, my friend was degrading their own character as a human being. The irony! Although race issues have progressed tremendously since the time of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, humans still have a tendency to believe they are better than others for idiotic reasons, which makes them inferior as a result.

AP Lit Connections

            I am planning on attending Michigan State this coming fall, and I am looking into the freshman seminar abroad this summer in Ireland. To apply for the program, I have to write several essays. This is where my writing improvement plan—and everything else I’ve learned—came in handy. I unleashed everything I know to help strengthen my essays. Below is one that I wrote to answer the question: “Describe a time you have interacted with someone different than yourself; focus specifically on how you dealt with the situation.”

This past summer, I traveled to Beijing, China with my mother. In the months leading up to our departure, I heard countless stories from friends and family who have traveled there about how strikingly different it is from the United States. I listened to each account trying to prepare myself for the inevitable culture shock; however, nothing could have trained me for the eye – opening experience that was my trip to Beijing.

            The Silk Market is a quintessential example of the stark differences between American and Chinese culture. In this several story mall, vendors are grabbing, yelling, following, and harassing shoppers to hopefully procure a purchase. An environment like this would intimidate and make most people uncomfortable, but all I could do was smile. How could I not? This experience is unfathomable in America.

Instead of shying away from the aggressive vendors, I embraced it with open arms. Every time my mother and I would be interested in buying something, we would begin a conversation with the vendor tending to us. We inquired about their day, their favorite things, and what they liked to do: we made jokes, smiled, and laughed with many of them. We got to know these strangers as much as twenty minutes or so would allow. Heck, we even made a few friends. I specifically tried to look at life from the perspective of the Silk Market vendors—to gain an understanding of how these people lived their lives. It was difficult to contemplate myself in their position, but that is exactly what I attempted to do. By smiling, laughing, and trying to understand the vendor’s way of life, I was able to fully appreciate the Silk Market.

            I started my essay by focusing on my thesis. I introduce the topic of my essay in the very first sentence: my trip to Beijing. I then give the reader of preview of what is to come with the last sentence: how crazy the experience was. My opening paragraph sets the scene for what is to come. While constructing this essay, I was constantly thinking about grammar constructions and tips to improve my writing. It was always on the forefront of my mind. This piece is a great example of everything I have been learning and working on over the past 18 weeks.

Games of Thrones Part 2 & Mark Twain Notes

            Not only did George R.R. Martin incorporate an ingenious structure in A Game of Thrones, he also uses popular words in their literal meaning instead of their societal meaning. Martin uses words that have drastically different connotations and denotations. In the beginning of the book, the word bastard is used frequently to describe John Snow. At first, I did not understand what Martin was trying to get across when he used the word. I thought the word meant John Snow was not an unpleasant person, however this was not the original intent of bastard in A Game of Thrones. In this novel, bastard means a child that is born out of wedlock or a relationship: a child that is a product of lust.

This word is a crucial piece to the plot of A Game of Thrones because it defines John Snow’s thoughts and actions. Snow feels like an outsider. He is not a true Stark. His outsider status is highlighted through Catelyn’s thoughts about John because she despises Snow—he is a product of Ned’s lust, and she cannot even bear to look at him. This makes him feel unloved, and thus leads to his decision to join The Watch at The Wall. As you can see, the word bastard is essential to the understanding of A Game of Thrones, and I was misconstrued about the meaning of the word until I used context clues to decipher the meaning. Once I was able to figure bastard did not mean an unlikeable person, but a shameful child, everything made sense. This is a perfect example of Martin’s interesting word selection. It forced me to rethink meanings of words as I have to come to understand them in today’s world, such as bastard.

Mark Twain Notes

Mark Twain’s real name is Samuel Clemens

·      Was born in Missouri

·      Was in the Confederate Army for awhile

·      He was a boat master

·      Mark twain was actually a command to check if the water was deep enough to pass through

·      He would travel a lot and write about it

·      Became an expert o regionalism

·      Knew all of the different accents and dialects

·      Colloquialism is when you talk to your peeps—a standard way of speaking

·      Known for aphromism, which is short, witty, sayings

·      Was a realist

o   Wrote about things that were real

o   The environment

o   The language

o   Twain wanted to stay true to region

Structure of Huckleberry Finn

·      Picaresque novel

o   Means it is episodic, and is a journey through different episodes

·      Satire

o   Criticism of human vice using irony, wit, parody

o   Satire illuminates the dark things about being human (vice)

o   Satire is an original work, while a parody is based off another work

·      Sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

·      A southern man’s novel

·      Huckleberry Finn is a poor boy

·      Very witty

·      Satire has 4 techniques

o   Exaggeration

o   Incongruity

o   Parody

o   Reversal

Characters

·      Finn is a very superstitious person

·      Sawyer is educated, middle class person

·      Sawyer is a frivolous person, and is always wanting an adventure

·      Finn is an intelligent person, but is not educated