...American Literature 23 November 2009 Analytical Essay of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, was written by Mark Twain and originally published in 1884 during a time when slavery was prominent in the United States. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the story regarding the interracial friendship between the two main characters, Huck and Jim. Huck is a young white male who is on the run, making his getaway from his abusive father. While escaping the life he lived, his adventures take him down the Mississippi River. Jim is a black escaped slave, making the same journey along the Mississippi River as Huck, making his way to freedom. As they experience different adventures on their travels along the Mississippi River, Huck and Jim form a very unique friendship. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn became a book that both revolutionized American literature and became a book at the center of literary debate (Webb). Many people regard The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as one of the greatest novels in American literature; others think it celebrates racism and should be banned from our schools. “In recent years the racial (and racist) implications of every aspect of the novel have been subject to critical debate, as have questions about the racial beliefs of the author”(Levine 95). The reason for the wide spread debate is mainly due to the books vernacular use of the word “nigger” and, although some argue that the novel is extremely racist,...
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...Name Course Course Instructor Date Parent figures in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn In Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck indirectly searches for a home among the different characters, with whom he interacts. The theme of parental figures is core to this piece of work. There are different characters, which represent parental figures. These are important to Huck, as they help to shape him into a man. The characters that are a representation of parental figures include Jim, Mr. Grangerford, Miss Watson, Judge Thatcher, and Widow Douglas. According to De Koster, these are seen to play an important role in different aspects in the development of Huck, thus are a personification of parental figure to Huck (56). This essay therefore, argues for the theme of parental figures in Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Parents are important in the life of a child. Their presence and involvement in the life of their children contributes positively to the growth of the children. However, when parents are absent during a child’s growth process, or are irresponsible, and do not look after the child, this has a negative impact on the child. Parents ought to be there for their children to count on them. In Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, parental figure is an emerging theme, because Huck, who plays an important role, lacks parental guidance and care. For most of his life, his biological parents are not part of him, and therefore, have limited influence...
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...able to eloquently and succinctly put those thoughts onto paper. Because he wrote a combination of fiction and nonfiction, it is difficult to categorize Mark Twain as an author. According to Neil Schmitz, Mark Twain was, “a southern humorist gone over, not just a deserter, a dissenter, but a literary scalawag, a southern writer in unionist discourse and narrative” (91). Most people recognize Twain’s brief, witty, straightforward proverbs that are often quoted today. He also wrote many novels, a few nonfiction books, a plethora of short stories, and essays. Mark Twain uses a variety of rhetorical devices including carefully chosen, colorful language, satirical tone, and unique symbolism to entertain and to enlighten his readers about the moral dilemmas and the beauty of the America he knew. According to Ernest Hemingway, all of American literature comes from one great book, Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Twain, Huck Finn vii). Although this statement may seem hyperbolic, it does indicate the important place Mark Twain holds in American literature. Early Nineteenth century American writers tended to try to write like English writers with flowery, ostentatious language (Schmitz 100). Twain’s writing style was innovative when it was written and is still absolutely unique. He writes with simple prose and careful word choice. Each word is carefully selected and each sentence is meticulously crafted. Twain writes, “The difference between the almost right word and the...
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...Adventures of Huckleberry Finn follow countless boyhood adventures between the rambunctious young boys, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. While Twain’s novels depict long playful summer days spent in the sun, his work is far from children’s literature. Twain’s novels include dark adult themes such as death, ignorance, physical punishment, deceit and most prominently, racism. Twain modeled both novels based on his own life experiences growing up along the Mississippi River (Frost), hoping to mirror how one's surroundings influence their character development, furthermore shaping who they will become. To do so, Twain creates a world of struggle for his protagonists,...
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...Huck Finn in American High Schools The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, also known as “Huck Finn,” is an iconic and well-known classic that is part of the curriculum in high schools throughout the United States. Huck Finn, as one should easily guess, is the protagonist of the entire book. Huck faces many challenges throughout, from his faked death to get away from a lonely life and abusive father, to his internal struggle of turning Jim in. And because of its historical accuracy and moral actuality, it should be a continued required reading in high school curriculums. The setting of Huck Finn is before the Civil war, roughly 1835-1845, when slavery was still legal in the recently independent United States. Any slave not freed by his owner was hunted down and white domination was frequently practiced and seen. When Huck faked his death towards the beginning, was also when Jim, the Widow’s slave, fled. Whites and...
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...My literary critique on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is focused on the confusion of the message being given to the reader do to the conscious struggle between right and wrong, an example of that would be the decision of stealing from Ms. Watson and freeing Jim, or not stealing from Ms. Watson and leaving Jim as a slave. Huck did decided that even though stealing from Ms. Watson would surely send him to “Hell” he still went with his gut and freed Jim, But with that later in the story shortly after Ms. Watsons death Huck and Jim found out that in her will she had freed Jim anyways. The ending of that situation in this story is what I choose to critique because of the cloudy message that is being given to the reader. It does not support...
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...SAY IT AIN’T SO, HUCK: A SECOND LOOK AT MARK TWAIN’S “MASTERPIECE” Jane Smiley’s analysis gives a very controversial view on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn due to its subdued thoughts upon what is known to many as classical American literature. Her essay concerns other author’s inspections about the issues upon slavery, and how differently they are represented in other works of literature. Smiley makes her point known that although Huck Finn is what most view as a great novel; she disagrees and states that Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin is more useful as a tool to learn about the problems dealing with slavery. From the beginning to the end of the essay, Smiley’s initial intention to bringing Mark Twain’s novel into to spot light changes. Her essay that was supposed to support Mark Twain moves more interest upon Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and seems to have replaced the luster of Huck Finn completely. She also is under the impression that the character Jim, the runaway slave also Huck’s companion in all of their misadventures was treated so poorly that the the novel as a whole doesn’t stand as an attack on racism at all. Perhaps, she must of read a different book than I, or she maybe had a few too many glasses of wine whilst reading and became over sensitive to the situation. I wish she would have given examples on how Huck’s actions should have played out towards Jim that would make her feel like the novel did suffice. The fact that Huck had several opportunities...
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...Sydney Poole AP Language Arts Jameson 24 January 2016 Prose Essay In the article, I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Sing by Francine Prose, she feels uncertain about the process of teaching through selected books. Prose gives a few examples from To Kill a Mockingbird to I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings as well as various textbook short stories. Prose is questions the effectiveness of using literary works to teach values through different traits that certain characters exude. She writes, “The narrator of Caged Bird is good, her rapist is bad; Scout and Atticus Finch are good, their bigoted neighbors are bad.” This is a twodimensional way of looking at the characters and their development. Another point found in this article is that teachers plant their own interpretation of a work in their students heads. Prose adds “ … this moving, funny novel (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) is being taught not as a work of art but as a piece of damning evidence against that bigot, Mark Twain.” Which changes Prose’s initial excitement upon finding that work on the list. Overall, on this topic Prose conveys that she does not believe that values can be taught through literature in a school setting. However, I believe that novels can teach a lesson. Prose writes about how lessons are taught to high school readers as if they cannot draw their own conclusions about what they read. Some may be unable to think for themselves, but it is from the poin...
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...He sees right through everyone and their lifestyle. He shares lots of his opinions about the characters in the book although, he never actually says them. In Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, Nick writes, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made. . . . (Fitzgerald, 179)” Everyone loves Tom and Daisy. They come off as the perfect rich couple but they have their flaws. They’re a messy couple and their perfect life is too good to be true. The whole novel Tom is having an affair and Daisy falls for Gatsby again. They have the perfect American Dream but with a twist. Barbara Hochman, a novel critic, wrote, “Nick's wish to separate voice from...
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...How to Write a novel Essay Posted in Novel Essay on 04/03/2012 01:34 am by admin1 Novel Essay as a Literature Essay Type A powerful essay can balance a detailed and logical structure with an enthusiastic and convincing writing style. This balance will help you reach goal, which is to convey information and build an effective argument regarding the chosen subject matter. As you plan, write and edit your essay, your main argument should remain at the heart of your work. Of course, the task of staying focused on your main idea may not be as easy as it seems. In addition, you will need to carefully handle other elements of the essay, such as the introduction, supporting evidence and conclusion. When dealing with a literature essay, you should offer a debatable argument about a literary work. For example, simply stating that “Mark Twain’s ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ is about the adventures of a young protagonist,” will not suffice as a debatable issue. You will need to produce a more focused and opinionated topic. Your personal stance, which will appear in the form of your essay’s thesis statement, can aim to analyze character development, debate the effectiveness of writing techniques employed by the author or even draw comparisons between multiple literary works. You must be imaginative and clear when brainstorming your thesis. After your thesis statement is in place, you will use the body of the essay to support your stance using facts and examples from the text. Direct...
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...* 1. The passage above is notable chiefly for c. a literary conceit 2. In The Federalist, No, X, James Madison proposed that the dangers of factions be controlled by a a. republican form of government * 3. Sky Woman, Wolverine, and Turtle are all important figures in which of the following types of literature ? * d. Native American oral tales * 4. In line 1, “offspring” most probably refers to the author’s * b. book of poem * * 5. “My rambling brat” (line 11) is an example of * d. personification * * * 6. Place the name of teach of the Colonial era figures beside the British colony with which he is most closely associated. A. John Smith- The Virginia Colony B. John Winthrop- The Massachusetts Bay Colony * C. Roger Williams- The Colony Of Rhode Island * * * 7. The passage above is an example of a. Puritanism * * 8. Thomas Pain’s Common Sense had a direct influence on which of the following Revolutionary era works? * c. Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence * 9. The passage above is from * a. William Bradford’s The History of Plimouth Plantation 10. All of the following are writers of the Colonial era EXCEPT b. Margaret Fuller 11. The passage would best be described as an example of d. Sentimentalism 12. The first paragraph of the passage provides an example of which of the following figures of speech ? c. Apostrophe 13...
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...in itself and which pieces of writing we can include within this label. It is believed that when a piece is written in North America, more precisely in the USA, it would automatically be given this epithet. But it should be taken into account that this idea is quite broad and doesn’t reflect the real essence of the term. However, there is also another definition that gathers this essence: American Literature is the one that represents the Americanism, the singularity of the USA philosophy and culture. This way, instead of focusing on who the author is, it is focused on the content of the writing. In that which concerns Fiction, the following documents are the ones considered as narrative: Speeches Letters Short Stories Essays Political Documents Sermons Novels Diaries 1 FIRST LITERARY EXPRESSIONS The first documents in which the idea of Americanism is very present are the Sermons. They respond to the strict Protestantism settled in the New Continent after the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers and Puritans in the Mayflower (1620) and the Arabella (1630). They established a theocratic community whose main and only point of reference was the Bible. That is why the idea of the ‘city upon a hill’ is still very present in American mentality. As we all know, their community was also governed by the concept of Predestination. This belief was based in the idea that we are saved or condemned since the...
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...The SAT Essay: Building a Repertoire of Examples The SAT essay is intended to measure your writing skills, not your knowledge of any specific subject. Therefore, the essay prompts given on the SAT must be fairly open-ended, so that anyone with a highschool education and life experiences common to all teenagers can respond to them. Most of them deal with basic philosophical, psychological, moral, or social issues. In my experience as a teacher, I’ve seen that the biggest challenge students face in writing the SAT essay is coming up with rich and relevant examples to discuss within the twenty-five minutes you’re given for the essay section. Quite often, students end up using examples that are inappropriate or superficial, or they don’t know enough about the examples they’ve chosen to write about them in detail. The way to combat this problem is to create your own repertoire of examples that you are well prepared to write detailed paragraphs about. Then, when you read the prompt you’re given on the day of the test, you can simply choose the examples from your repertoire that are most relevant to that particular topic. (Of course, this method isn’t fullproof; it may happen that you are unfortunate enough to get a topic that your prepared examples aren’t really appropriate for. If that’s the case, don’t try to force your examples to fit the topic. The process of coming up with these examples and writing several practice essays will also help you learn how to come up with new examples...
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...His book stayed on the bestseller list for thirty weeks, though never above fourth place.' Costing 75?, the Bantam paperback edition appeared in 1964. By 1981, when the same edition went for $2.50, sales still held steady, between twenty and thirty thousand copies per month, about a quarter of a million copies annually. In paperback the novel sold over three million copies between 1953 and 1964, climbed even higher by the 1980s, and continues to attract about as many buyers as it did in 1951. The durabilityof The author appreciates the invitationof Professors Marc Lee Raphaeland Robert A. Gross to present an early version of this essay at the College of William & Mary, and also thanks ProfessorsPaul Boyer and John D. Ibson for their assistance. 1AdamMoss, "Catcher Comes of Age," Esquire, December 1981, p. 57; Jack Salzman, ed., intro. to New Essays on "The Catcher in the Rye" (New York:Cambridge UniversityPress, 1991), pp. 6, 7. 567 568 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY its appeal is astonishing. The...
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...THE SIGNET CLASSIC EDITION OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S MACBETH LINDA NEAL UNDERWOOD S E R I E S E D I T O R S : W. GEIGER ELLIS, ED.D., ARTHEA J. S. REED, PH.D., UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA, EMERITUS and UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, RETIRED A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Classic Edition of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth 2 INTRODUCTION William Shakespeare developed many stories into excellent dramatizations for the Elizabethan stage. Shakespeare knew how to entertain and involve an audience with fast-paced plots, creative imagery, and multi-faceted characters. Macbeth is an action-packed, psychological thriller that has not lost its impact in nearly four hundred years. The politically ambitious character of Macbeth is as timely today as he was to Shakespeare's audience. Mary McCarthy says in her essay about Macbeth, "It is a troubling thought that Macbeth, of all Shakespeare's characters, should seem the most 'modern,' the only one you could transpose into contemporary battle dress or a sport shirt and slacks." (Signet Classic Macbeth) Audiences today quickly become interested in the plot of a blindly ambitious general with a strong-willed wife who must try to cope with the guilt engendered by their murder of an innocent king in order to further their power. The elements of superstition, ghosts, and witchcraft, though more readily a part of everyday life for the Renaissance audience, remain intriguing to modern teenagers. The action-packed plot, elements...
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