The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn Essays (Examples)

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" By Mark Twain

Renowned author, Mark Twain, was brought up in the then-slave state of Missouri. His writings reflect his exposure to the barbaric institution known as slavery, in his formative years. The novelist decided upon becoming a driver of a steamboat during one voyage to the city of New Orleans. Naturally, a large part of the author's writings is set on the Mississippi River. Much of Twain's life was spent journeying across the nation, and numerous books of his deal with his very own personal experiences and adventures. Twain's most popular novels are the 1876 publication "Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and the 1885 work, "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (a sequel to the former book, and counted as a work belonging to the "Great American Novel" genre) (ilson).

Summary of the Novel

Huckleberry Finn kicks off where its prequel ends. Huck and Tom each become owners…

Critical Literary Analysis

Both John H. Wallace and Allan B. Ballard present a literary argument for how Jim and other blacks are portrayed in Mark Twains Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. They particularly focus on the use of the term nigger in the novel and decry the fact that a novel with such language should be taught in schools where blacks might be made to feel uncomfortable by the language. Ballard recounts his own suffering as a student having to hear his classmates utter that word during readings of the book in class: he notes that in his class, some of the whites snickered, others giggled while he himself saw none of the merits of the work and could only later recall the sense of relief I felt when Iwould flip ahead a few pages and see that the word nigger would not be read that hour (8). Wallace likewise views…

Examining the difficult process that Huck has when he finally determines not to turn Jim in can be especially helpful in this. In addition, readers of this opinion can discuss the effects of Twain's own divergence from society when contemplating the ways in which his articulation of his nonstandard views into text affected society.

Thus, while two sides clearly exist in this debate -- one stating that Twain's novel advocates racism through the relationship between Huck and Jim and the other arguing that Twain actually condemns the ideology by using this relationship -- a compromise can be reached. Each side can still find Twain's novel valuable in a discussion of the effects of racism on society and the role literature plays in those effects. Thus, the need to ban this novel from the classroom is null and void when this type of compromise can be reached.

Regardless of the fact…

Furious that his son had learned how to read and write, Pap considers that Huck wants to prove that he is smarter than his father. As a result, Huck receives several beatings and is kidnapped by Pap.

During his stay on Jackson's island, Huck learns that Jim has a lot of knowledge from observing the nature and its laws, along with tons of superstitious beliefs: "Some young birds come along... Jim said it was a sign that it was going to rain... And Jim said you mustn't count the things you are going to cook for dinner, because it would bring bad luck" (Twain, Mark) Jim proves to be compassionate, loyal and a dedicated friend.

The fact that Jim pays great attention to Huck's safety does not go unrewarded. Huck gradually develops affection for Jim after he finds that the black man is actually intelligent and honest. These features make…

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. The orks Cited two sources in MLA format.

Reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

For all voracious readers who have an insatiable thirst for serious, entertaining, enthralling and mature reading, popular names like illiam Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and Mark Twain are not only familiar but also all-time favorites of many. After The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain introduced another thought-provoking yet highly gripping sequel of the masterpiece titled The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, that is avidly taught in schools, remains on all library shelves and is a great and a fast-paced read to date. This analytical as well as an argumentative paper revolves around the following thesis statement:

The masterwork The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a humorous story addressing highly debatable issues and soon became an extremely controversial magnum opus. It is a scholarly piece of writing that…

Huck Finn

In Mark Twain's Huckeberry Finn, the title character and escaped slave Jim bond together in their mutual quest for freedom. Neither knows where they are headed, but they do know where they have been and what they are running from. Both have endured a different type of slavery. Jim escapes from the actual legally sanctioned and racialized form of slavery; whereas Huck Finn is running from an abusive father who literally locks him up. Therefore, Huck Finn and his friend Jim are mirrors for each other as well as partners. It matters not that their backgrounds are different, and in spite of the overarching theme of race, the two friends bond psychologically in a mutually respectful and mutually protective relationship.

Huckleberry Finn and Jim go out of their ways to help one another while they are on the island, and after. There is no formal bond of loyalty…

Huckleberry Finn and What Makes an American

What Makes Twain's Huckleberry Finn American?

"Those canonic ideals -- self-government, equal opportunity, freedom of speech and association, a belief in progress, were first proclaimed during the era of the evolution and the early republic and have developed more expansive meanings since then," these are the basic core ideals which make something truly American (Kazin & McCartin 1). The freedom to live as we want, say what we want, and govern ourselves -- these are what make us Americans in culture and ideology. In literature, these core elements are also often what define a book or character as truly American. Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn adheres to the very ideals of what it is to be an American, which is what makes the work and its author truly Americanized in style and content.

One of the most important ideals in the concept of Americanism…

The real reason to go: Self-knowledge about Huckleberry and Jim's roles in their society. Huckleberry has always existed on the margins of society, because of his class. Even at the beginning of the novel he intuitively senses the falseness of piety and middle-class morality, embodied by the religious drawings of the bloodthirsty Grangerford's dead daughter. Unlike the civilized Miss Watson, Huck instinctively treats Jim like an equal, and his only qualms about allowing Jim to seek freedom come from socially learned ideas about race. Huck's boyhood idol Tom Sawyer behaves cruelly to Jim and Tom uses Jim at the end of the novel to play a childhood prank. Huckleberry learns that freedom is only possible on a raft, away from civilization. This is why, at the end of the novel, he vows to head for uncharted territories, and to never write again. Jim learns the true meaning of friendship as…

The slave economics of the plantation system do as well: the economics of the South explain why being a personal slave of a woman like Miss Watson in a more genteel area of the country is not as 'bad' as being a plantation slave in the deep South. The prospect of being sold further down South is what makes Jim so fearful. The politics of a corrupt political system that empowers the policing of fugitive slaves, and a history that normalizes human bondage and makes Huck feel guilty for fleeing with Jim as 'theft' are all manifest in the novel.

These plot points also shows how social aspects of geography can develop character: were it not for the Mississippi, Huck's views about race would not be changed and challenged. Through fleeing with Jim, Huck learns that he is not stealing Jim, but that Jim has a right to be free.…

sher, Emma, Huck Finn, they all have a mentor at some point in their lives. Huck is guided by Jim, who although described like a child who needs constant guidance (like all the slaves were thought to be in that time), is often sounding like the voice of reason. sher is helped to follow his love for art by his mother first, then the Rebbe steps in and brings him under the guidance of Jakob Kahn, an experienced and famous artist who will act as his final mentor.

The protagonists in all three novels are very strong willed, intelligent young people who are willing to sacrifice a lot for their personal freedom and for their right to remain true to themselves. They are prepared to go a long way to find their vocation or the meaning of their life. lthough acting in their own interested, they are also dedicated to…

Huckleberry Finn's violent, alcoholic father, after Finn escapes from the Widow, is an extremely negative paternal force of socialization. Finn, rather than be integrated into society like Emma, must leave society and find his own values, rather than the hypocritical values imposed upon him by others. The most fundamental of these values are his friendship with Jim, an escaped Black slave, who is his truest friend in the novel. Jim follows Huckleberry Finn everywhere, and Finn saves his life on several occasions by lying. Huck feels guilty because he has been taught this is 'stealing' another person's property, because Jim is 'owned' but Huck's natural humanity tells him otherwise. Unlike Emma's natural, ungoverned impulses, which led her to play with the fates of others, Huck's natural inclinations are the best part of his character, unlike his friend Tom Sawyer who is more socialized in morals and books (the sort of…

The natural qualities of the Huck and Jim have played an important part in the evolution of their friendship. Jim's gullibility and love to gain his freedom had changed Huck's moral values and had turned him into becoming a responsible person. Until both found a friend in each other despite of their somehow opposite traits. According to Linda Fondrk, in her analysis of how the characters of the Huck and Jim evolved to friendship, indicates the following.

A their relationship evolves as Jim proves his worth and wisdom and Huck grows up spiritually and morally. Jim forces him to reckon with his humanity as an African-American and Huck responds by continually redefining and clarifying his values.

After the incident of Huck saving Jim from slave catchers, the two, going on in their adventure, started the bonding of their friendship. From one situation into another, Huck and Jim surpasses each trial…

Leo Marx Critic on Huckleberry Finn

Author's ideas: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has a controversial ending, which, as stated in Professor Leo Marx's 1995 analysis, resulted from: the enforced happy ending, the author's basic betrayal of Huck's companion Jim (Twain, 1994), and the return of the tale to the original mood, reflected at the novel's start (roussard, 2011).

Leo Marx states that Huckleberry becomes a powerless, naive and subservient accomplice of Tom the robber (Marx, 1995, p. 296), akin to the eager boy, prepared to become a part of Tom's gang of thieves at the novel's outset.

I concur with Twain's view, since Tom's wild scheme holds no significance after the revelation that, all this time, Jim was a liberated man. Further, Huck discovers his father is deceased, and hence, is freed, as well. Ultimately, Twain (1994) ties up loose ends, providing writers with a seemingly happy ending, which,…

Another example of scenes -- and characters -- creating both a balance and a contrast between humor and seriousness comes from the Duke and the King. These two characters appear in many scenes of the novel, and their escapades and claims are a definite source of humor (and frustration) in the novel. One of the most poignant scenes in the book, however, is one Huck sees these two finally receive their comeuppance, as each has been tarred and feathered and is being run out of town on a rail. Huck reflects on the senseless cruelty that mankind is capable of, feeling sympathy for his two former companions though they had treated he and Jim abysmally and cheated everyone else they came across, too. The fact that many of the Duke and King's actions are humorous in addition to be dastardly serves to emphasize the cruelty that they experience at the…

Rather than allowing the scene to solidify a stereotype, the author of this book proposes that readers should, assuming they are understand the true voice of the novel Huck Finn, allow the scene to alter the stereotype of Jim as a servant to the Caucasian man. Readers should, according to the author, instead see that Jim, as a free man, acts no differently not because he is bound to the Caucasian man, but because he is a noble character. This argument would greatly enhance the point of a paper whose main theme was that Hick Finn was more about freedom and dignity than about race relations.

Davis, Thadious, M., Leonard, James, S., and Tenney, Thomas, a. "Introduction: The Controversy over Huckleberry Finn." Satire or Evasion?: Black Perspectives on Huckleberry Finn. Durham, N.C: Duke University Press, 1992: 1-13.

This chapter discusses many important arguments both for and against the novel the…

Narrative Style of Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

The entire structure of the novel is one of frustrated attempt to escape from restrictions only to find the refuge susceptible to invasion and destruction.

Huckleberry Finn himself is the most American of heroes: he is the boy-man in a male world... And solitary -- alone even among others. (Solomon, 175).

While the vast majority of critical analysis conducted on Mark Twain's The

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn focuses on the symbolic significance of the river within the overall narrative; few scholars have suggested that Huck himself may have been constructed in such a way as to evoke the emergence of America and the realization of its national identity. A youth filled with the spirit of rebellion, yearning to live free from the dominion of an arbitrary authority, self-sufficient and reliant on his own intelligence to guide him, Huckleberry Finn embodies the…

Huck Finn

Jim and Huck: A Relationship in Spite of Race

As Leslie Gregory points out in "Finding Jim," Twain used the "minstrel mask" as a stereotypical platform upon which to base one of the central characters of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. And yet behind the "mask" is a very human and humane man, who, in spite of a tendency towards superstition, acts as a kind of father figure to Huck, revealing to the boy the proper path to manhood -- just as Huck promises to take Jim on the path to freedom. This paper will show how their relationship is symbiotic though charged with racial tension at times.

Huck begins the novel with a "misconception" of Jim's personhood (Gregory). Although this misconception is not as cruel as Tom's (Tom has no scruples about playing tricks on Jim), Huck's conscience is informed by his society (and certainly by his…

After striking off down the river, he has many encounters with various townspeople that cause him to question whether or not this is a society he truly wants a place in. Two of the most memorable characters he meets are the King and the Duke, who do nothing but swindle the people they meet and attempt to control Huck. They even sell Jim, and Huck determines to leave them. This is one of many instances that Huck leaves the adults in his life, and though these two are not exactly responsible adults, this still shows his growing independence.

One of the most poignant events in the novel that truly illustrates Huck's wisdom as an adult comes during his final encounter with the Duke and the King. Some of the townspeople that the pair has swindled have achieved their revenge by tarring and feathering the two, then riding them out of…

I agree with Nat Hentoff that the book "Huck Finn" should be read in all public schools across the nation. Whether or not we want to admit it, racism did, and always will, exist within our society. It is only through discussing that racism at a young age, and by confronting the ideas of racism that we can teach children how to accept all colors and creeds.

A also agree that the portrayal of Jim in "Huck Finn" is that of a positive one. While there is no question of the racist world he is living in, Huck doesn't see those issues, and accepts Jim for who he is. That in and of its self is enough of a reason to teach the novel, in my opinion. Children of all ages need to learn to accept others, and the positive portrayal of Jim is a positive experience for all who…

Huck has been raised to treat African-Americans one way but his instinct tells him something different. He does not quite understand the idea of slavery because he is young and he can still see the cruelty behind it. He does not see class as the adults around him do. hen he struggles with turning in Jim, he finally decides he cannot do it. He states, "People would call me a low down abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum -- but that don't make no difference. I ain't agoing to tell" (Twain 269). Here we see that he knows the language and knows what others have told him to do based on Jim's class but he decides that he knows better than the grown-ups around him. In Maggie, A Girl of the Streets, class becomes an important issue for Crane in that it becomes what separates Maggie from the rest…

However, this label can only be loosely applied to Tom, as society accepts that the scoundrel will grow out of him, given his proper upbringing.

Second, dangerous scoundrels often seem humorous, but the danger they pose cannot be underestimated. The most blaring examples of dangerous scoundrels in the novel are Pap, Huck's father, and the Duke and the Dauphin. Pap is a drunk who has a reputation for causing trouble. If he were simply a drunk, however, he would be classified as a societal scoundrel. Instead, he is a dangerous man who beats his son and takes advantage of him for his money. Twain clearly disapproves of Pap, as his actions toward Huck, despite Huck's desire to have a family are abysmal. Twain's judgment against Pap is avenged as dies early on in the novel, although the reader and Huck do not know about it until the end. In addition…

His personalized learning goes entirely against the societal norm of the day. During Huck's era most free citizens still saw the Negro as an inferior being, not even human enough to consider as an intelligent entity, rather they are considered as property, and property has not rights, no feelings and no hopes, dreams or fears.

In an early chapter in the book, Huck sells his fortune to the Judge for one dollar in order to keep himself from lying to 'Pap', which is an excellent display of Huck's humanity and character, but it also shows how patriarchal the society was. Even Huck knew there was not a thing he could do against his father, if his father chose to take the money that Huck had been rewarded.

Huck also senses what money can do in society but his sense was one that questioned whether it was all that effective. hile…

Leo Marx and Huckleberry Finn

Katelyn Stier

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has a controversial ending, which, as stated in Professor Leo Marx's 1995 analysis, resulted from: the enforced happy ending, the author's basic betrayal of Huck's companion Jim (Twain, 1994), and the return of the tale to the original mood, reflected at the novel's start (roussard, 2011). Leo Marx states that Huckleberry becomes a powerless, naive and subservient accomplice of Tom the robber (Marx, 1995, p. 296), akin to the eager boy, prepared to become a part of Tom's gang of thieves at the novel's outset. I concur with Twain's view, since Tom's wild scheme holds no significance after the revelation that, all this time, Jim was a liberated man. Further, Huck discovers his father is deceased, and hence, is freed, as well. Ultimately, Twain (1994) ties up loose ends, providing writers with a seemingly happy ending, which, however,…

Conscience vs. Societal Pressure in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn

The novel Huckleberry Finn (1876), by Samuel Clemens (published under Clemens's pen name, Mark Twain) contains myriad personal and social conflicts, mainly on the part of its narrator, Huck, between what his conscience tells him and what society of the time (the pre-Abolition American South) believed. In this essay, I will explore various incidents in which Huck decides between what he instinctively feels (his conscience) and what he knows society considers right.

The story of Huckleberry Finn is "essentially a process by which the hero gains self-knowledge and finds his own identity. In the process, he also learns about the world in which he lives and the nature of evil" ("Major Theme"). Huck often finds himself having to disobey social conventions and rules in order to follow his conscience. Usually, however, he feels guilty and sinful afterward, but also knows he…

Jim in Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

roadly speaking, the character of Jim in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, represents the role of slavery in the society of the 1840's. Slavery and the struggle for freedom are the central concerns of both Huck and Jim as they make their way through the adventures depicted by the novel. For Jim the threat of slavery is physical, as he is a Negro and an escaped slave. Huck wishes to escape the kind of social and mental slavery imposed upon him by Miss Watson and the Widow Douglas. This slavery is also mental. His father on the other hand, having subjected the boy to physical abuse, represents physical slavery imposed on the boy. It is in these circumstances that Huck and Jim represent freedom to each other, together with the motivation to relentlessly escape slavery in the face of…

Huckleberry Finn

Suspense: Find examples of suspense in chapter 24-30. What do these events cause a reader to feel anxious for Huck? Is he ever in real danger?

Suspense is maintained throughout the Wilks scam by wondering whether the increasing inventions of the King and the Duke will still enable them to maintain their con game, and then whether the mounting threat of mob violence will claim their lives, or even possibly Huck's. If there is a moment when Huck may face real danger, it is when the mob forms to demand justice.

As a reader, do you feel anxious for the Duke or the king? Why or why not?

The Duke's and king's situation in these chapters is precarious. The Wilks scam seems unlikely to pan out and brings out the worst in them both -- Huck says their behavior makes him "ashamed of the human race." But the…

Yet, that is arguably why the characters act as they do (Mcilliams 197). Mcilliams further notes that human incompetence is comedy (197). Since the characters are not real people but Twain's creations, students should feel free to laugh at the ignorance and misfortunes of Huck and Jim in the same way that they are free to laugh when someone deliberately falls down in an attempt at comedy.

Comedy may not be immediately obvious in Twain's portrayal of Pap Finn. Yet he is one of Twain's strongest examples of satire and irony. Carter argues that Pap Finn establishes himself as an example of all that is wrong with the Southern social system; in becoming that example, readers can look to him to see what needs to change in order for people to become better and society to improve (137). In younger classrooms, this may at first be difficult to grasp. However,…

Local Color and Realism

The realism of Mark Twain fully reveals in the novel "The adventures of Huckleberry Finn," in novel, which is familiar to many of us since high school classes of literature, but which has a deeper psychological and moral meaning, as its message expands over the limits of an adventure story for teenagers. The events described in the book show the whole encyclopedia of Southern life in the middle of the nineteenth century in a very realistic and ironic way.

On the example of Huck's and Jim's journey on the raft down Mississippi River, Mark Twain succeeded to show on the particular examples of different events that happened in their life during journey the conflict of an individual and society, slavery and racism issues, "civilized society" with its bigotry, religious and philistine prejudices, as well as problem of education, common sense and conservatism in people's minds.

The…

"It was a curious childhood, full of weird, fantastic impressions and contradictory influences, stimulating alike to the imagination and that embryo philosophy of life which begins almost with infancy."

Paine 14) His consummate biography written in 1912, just after his death claims that Clemens spent the majority of his childhood in the company of his siblings, and the family slaves as his parents where often otherwise engaged, his father and inventor and his mother challenged by the running of such a large family with very little support.

Mark Twain did not remember ever having seen or heard his father laugh. The problem of supplying food was a somber one to John Clemens; also, he was working on a perpetualmotion machine at this period, which absorbed his spare time, and, to the inventor at least, was not a mirthful occupation. Jane Clemens was busy, too. Her sense of humor did not…

Herein is composed a character who captures the internal conflict that would identify America on its path to Civil ar.

In Twain's work, Huck emerges as a figure whose behavior and ideology are stimulated by a discomfort with the circumstances constraining him. Though painted as a portrait of one young man, the adventures which give the novel its title are actually a series of events wherein Huck brazenly flouts the standards which had given the pre-Civil ar delta its cultural outlook. His flight to freedom is guided by the juxtaposed but equally inapt incarcerations which he endured both at the pious hands of the idow Douglas and the abusive hands of his drunken father. Certainly, his staged death and his river-raft escape here would be explicit forms of active protest to the church-going morality of the former and the violent authority of the latter. In both, we see the religious…

Jonathan Edwards "Sinners in the hands of an Angry God"- write about your response to Edward's sermon as a member of his congregation.

(http://www.ccel.org/ccel/edwards/sermons.sinners.html)

Edward's "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is fascinating from a historical perspective but absolutely frightening from the perspective of someone who might have been listening to the sermon when it was delivered in 1741. The "fire and brimstone" approach to religious teachings is unpalatable. Religion should engender love and trust in humanity, not fear, anger, and near hatred. Edward seems angry, and is trying to encourage the congregation to join him by cultivating a sense of fear and self-loathing. However, I am reacting with my modern sensibilities. If I were a member of a New England congregation, I might actually be as mad as Edwards was, and receptive to his ideas. I might have come from a religious background that fomented fear of…

Narrator

In many ways, the literary movements and philosophies of determinism and individualism are opposites of one another. Determinism is one of the facets of Naturalism, and is based on the idea that things happen due to causes and effects largely out of the control of people and that choice is ultimately an illusion. Individualism, however, is widely based on the idea of free will and the fact that people can take action to control their surroundings and their fates in life. Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie provides an excellent example of determinist literature and is based on the critical ideas of amorality and environmental factors controlling a person's fate, while Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an example of individualism and illustrates the idea that a person can take action to make his or her own fate.

Dreiser's work chronicles the rise to wealth and social prominence of…

Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Moby-Dick" by Herman Melville, and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain. Specifically, it compares and contraststhese three characters in relation to the evil that dominates them, indicate what the attitude of the author is regarding each one, discuss the source of their evil nature or acts, the nature of the evil deeds they commit, and the results of these evil designs.

It will also select the character that should be the most strongly condemned and fully justify why. Each of these novel's characters is dominated by the evil influence of another character, and each of them faces this domination in a different way. Each character grows stronger from this evil influence, and learns how to remove the evil influence from their lives.

Evil is present in all of these novels, and much of each novel's theme revolves around the age-old premise of good…

Morality of the Minor Characters of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain makes two social outcasts, in the form of Huck and Jim, the most moral characters of his novel. Huck and Jim are the real templates of correct behavior. Yet, the rest of a hypocritical and essentially immoral society devotes itself to either catching or civilizing these characters. By showing how more socially acceptable characters minor characters of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are often less moral than Huck, who is the son of a drunken father, and Jim, who is a slave, Twain shows how conventional societal morals are completely awry with what is actually truthful and intrinsically good. After all, for all of their faults and lack of conventional education, Jim and Huck at least strive to be loving and loyal to one another. Thus, in the…

y the final chapter, although Huck has come to like Silas and Sally, he knows that they are still a part of the society he has come to distrust and fear so, before the dust from his adventures is fully settled he is already planning to detach himself again:" but I reckon I got to light out for the territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can't stand it. I been there before" (chapter 43, Electronic text center, University of Virginia Library).

In Austen's novel the theme is to show the violation of the moral and social codes and its disastrous results in a humored way. While human follies and stupidities lead to the violation of the code and only the self-knowledge can prevent the human error, Jane Austen's main theme becomes to know yourself. Through self-analysis Emma changes…

The Widow and Miss Watson see nothing wrong with slavery in modern society, while Huck actually takes actions to end slavery by leading Jim to freedom and treating Jim like a human being.

6. "To be or not to be, that is the bare bodkin."

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Signet, 2002, p. 143.

The Shakespearean 'actors' Jim and Huck befriend are really charlatans, despite their pretence of learning. They cannot even quote William Shakespeare's Hamlet in his "To be or not to be" soliloquy correctly.

7. "He says anyone who doesn't understand the theorems of Euclid is an idiot."

McCourt, Frank. Angela's Ashes. New York: Scribner, 1999, p.151.

The references to Euclid show the disparity between what is taught in Frank's school by an ambitious teacher and the poverty and ignorance of the rest of the boy's life. It also shows the narrow-mindedness of the principal, who…

He had the whitest shirt on you ever see, too, and the shiniest hat" (Twain, 37); "They said he was a p'fessor in a college, and could talk all kinds of languages, and knowed everything. nd that ain't the wust. They said he could vote when he was at home" (idem). The white man who considered his white ancestry all it took to make him better than any black person, regardless of whatever qualities he or she may have had, is the very expression of a society that was gravely affected by the gangrene of slavery and would bear the scars of segregation for almost another century after the bolition ct had been passed.

Twain's choice for the time setting of his novel proved to be well thought and pointed at those who were still blinded by the slightest shade of dark on the skin of their fellow countrymen. Mentalities…

They are the same age but Buck's family is wealthy and, for all intents and purposes, he should be refined but he is not.

Twain uses satire with the Grangerfords by making fun of Emmeline, who keeps a notebook full of notations like car wrecks, other kinds of bad luck, and suffering because she would later use those records to compose poetry.

The Grangeford's are also used for Twain to point out the hypocrisy of people. They are "church goers" and one of Mr. Grangerford's sermons is about brotherly love yet his family is feuding with another family for a reason no one can remember.

Examples of imagery in Chapter 19 include the days and nights swimming by, sliding along slowly. e read about the bullfrogs "a-cluttering" (323) and the cool breeze "fanning" (323) their faces. The intent on this scene is to bring the woods alive for the reader.…

His decision that Jim is worthy of the same consideration as any other man is not only a sign of Huck's growth, but a direct statement that Twain was making to the people reading his book in a very racially divisive time.

Twain also makes many broader statements about humanity in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The book is full of many characters who take advantage of others, like the Duke and the King, people who hate and fight senselessly, like the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons, and even honorable seeming men like Colonel Sherburn, who despite an eloquent speech about honor and the common man's cowardice shot and killed a defenseless drunk. Huck has a major epiphany when he sees the Duke and King, who have betrayed Huck and everyone else they met, tarred and feathered. Despite their actions against him and their obvious lack of regard for others, Huck…

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is perhaps the best example of Realism in literature because of how Twain presents it to us. Morality becomes something that Huck must be consider and think out as opposed to something forced down his throat. He knows the moral thing to do would be to report Jim, noting, " "People would call me a low down abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum -- but that don't make no difference. I ain't agoing to tell" (Twain 269). Furthermore, he cannot send Miss atson his letter he because his friendship with Jim trumps the morality he knows. Similarly, Jim wrestles with issues of good vs. bad. This is evident because of they way he decides to escape. He even begins to understand what Huck is going through when Huck does not turn him in. His revelation forces him to realize that Huck is "de bes'…

This style is in stark contrast to the writing style of Mark Twain, despite the fact that both authors are examining the broader aspects of life through their individual characters.

Twain and James also differ in the level of emotionality that is attached to their work. Twain writes with a vibrant passion, seeing the world through the lenses of his wide-eyed protagonists. There is a clear emotional connection between Twain and his characters, and the stories that he is telling. James, on the other hand, seems rather detached from his stories and his characters, almost as if he is viewing them from a distance. His description of Daisy's death is completely detached, as is the dialogue between the characters themselves. For example, even when Mrs. Costello is gossiping about the relationship between the Millers and Eugenio, she seems very reserved and staid -- not at all as if she were…

ith the link to the Bible, the story "…resonates with the richness of distant antecedents" and it no longer is "locked in the middle of the twentieth century"; hence, it never grows old, Foster concludes (56).

C.S. Lewis on the Importance of Reading Good Literature

C.S. Lewis, noted novelist, literary critic, lay theologian and essayist, advocates reading literature in his book an Experiment in Criticism. He is disappointed in fact when individuals only read important novels once. Reading a novel the second time for many on his list of incomplete readers is "…like a burnt-out match, an old railway ticket, or yesterday's paper" (Lewis, 2012, p. 2). Those bright alert people who read great works will read the same book "…ten, twenty or thirty times" during their lifetime and discover more with each reading, Lewis writes. The person who is a "devotee of culture" is worth "much more than the…

Rule of the Bone

About the author

The author Russell Banks writes in the manner that infused his stories with a sadistic honesty and moral goodness that his characters strive to live up to. He writes in striking and most often sad tones about the drama of daily life (Anderson, eye net).

Furthermore, his themes of failure, of weakness, of the complexity of living an honest life were often desolating, but all his stories does contain a positive wisdom to them along with a sense of optimism found in the details that he carefully draws out of his characters' routine and everyday realities (Anderson, eye net). Hence, in my opinion no modern author writes more delicately about common man's uncertain search for the American grail of material ease and self-esteem than Russell Banks.

About the book

In writing Rule of the Bone the author Russell Banks took almost a year…

Kim

Fathering Kim

The concept of a "coming of age" novel or a Bildungsroman is fairly well established, typically exploring the loss of innocence and the growing awareness -- both of the self and of the external world -- of the protagonist of the story, typically an adolescent male. There are many variations on this overall idea of a coming of age novel, of course, with characters and plots the cover a wide variety of different backgrounds, settings, and intentions, and with the overall impact and meaning of these novels also highly varied. Great Expectations and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are two examples of Bildungsroman, in certain ways, yet are very different stories told in very different styles, and with very different commentaries on society. Interestingly, despite the major differences in these tales, both of the protagonists in each of these novels is also without a true father in…

How can God satisfy both participants in the conflict?

Twain's moral is that the religious rhetoric used to justify war and the merging of patriotism and faith is always suspect. Each side believes that his or her cause and nation is just. During wartime, prayers 'cancel one another out' and show the hypocrisy of the inflated, one-sided view of warfare expressed in propaganda. It is easy to see Twain's message reflected in real life, particularly in the cases of ethnic conflicts where participants are pitted in age-old hatreds and use religion as a justification for their crimes. Such was the case of the Bosnians vs. The Serbs and the Protestants vs. The Catholics of Northern Ireland. To pray for victory in war, points out Twain's old man, is to pray for the death of other people: "If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it,…

Many adult readers disagree with the portrayed unreality of Dahl's books because in life everything is not fair, and good does not always win. Even when the hero of the Witches is permanently turned into a mouse, the reader is assured by the main character that, "I honestly don't feel especially bad about it. I don't even feel angry. In fact, I feel rather good" This lack of remorse is typical of Dahl's stories.

Similarly, many do not like Dahl's concept that virtue and poverty go together, such as with Miss Honey, Matilda's adored teacher. Some find this objectionable because it is a view consistent with Marxist philosophy, not one that supports free market capitalism.

Further criticism arises from Dahl's portrayal of adults, which many believe has a negative impact on the young readers. Throughout his work, authoritarian adults are often the victims of horrible revenge. However, what some find…

There are stereotypes on both sides of the racial issues raised in this book, and Lee tries to show that both of them are unfair and generalized, and that there were exceptions on both sides of the Black/white controversies and disagreements in the South.

Lee uses rape as a shocking way to bring racism to the surface, because sexual relations between a white woman and black man were even more volatile than just about any other kind of racial contact. The whites could never accept this, which is why it would be impossible for them to acquit Tom obinson at his trial. One critic sums up this mentality quite nicely. She writes, "Atticus Finch chided his son, Jem, for wondering why the jury did not give Tom obinson a prison sentence rather than the death sentence by saying, '[He's] a colored man, Jem. No jury in this part of the…

Can't say I disagree with him -- so I guess this yellow wallpaper crazy lady didn't have it so good, for all her money.

Sure, that lady went crazy, even though she was rich and livin' a high life. But heck, I might have gone crazy myself staring at the same wallpaper all day, with nothin' to do and I don't have half a mind to get crazy, people would say -- I think I might have gone crazy just on my own steam of thinkin' about what I could be doin'.

I can't just get my head around this whole other woman thing. First I thought she was like another person, then I realized that she was just a pretend woman in the imagination, behind the wallpaper -- and then, I kinda realized that the woman behind the paper was like Jim.

Let me explain, I'm not sayin' that…

Unbroken Laura Hillenbrand, report show book read retelling story. A theme selected proven research style writing. Examples details book support ideas. eport double spaced, standard 1" margins 12 size font.

Following her first novel Seabiscuit, many awaited Laura Hillenbrand's second book with nothing less than eagerness and excitement. It will be however nine years after her first non-fiction account before Unbroken: A World War Two Story of Survival, esilience, and edemption is released. Hillenbrand's life took a sudden turn just before her graduation from Kenyon College in Ohio when she fell ill with chronic fatigue syndrome, a disease that has kept her confined from living a normal life. She remains ensnared within the perimeters of her house in Glover Park, Washington which is from where she conducted research and eventually wrote Unbroken, the biographical novel about an Olympic runner whose World War Two experience reflects heroism in a sense of…

Rubyfruit Jungle written by Rita Mae Brown. This paper also discusses the author, the challenges she had to meet and the obstacles she surmounted in order to achieve something in her life. The paper also reviews on the fact that distinctions cannot be made between human beings simply on the grounds of casts, race and sexual orientation. This paper also concentrates on the character of Molly, the heroine of Rubyfruit jungle and how she achieves the goals in her life.

Rubyfruit Jungle

Ruby Fruit Jungle is one of the greatest works produced by Rita Mae Brown. Her work in this novel was readily acclaimed as it reached the hands of young readers. They responded enthusiastically to the glistening, risque and shrewd heroine of the novel. Published in 1973, it has won great approbation since then. hile expressing her opinions about the heroine and the author of the book, the chancellor…

right word and almost the right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. Author and humorist Mark Twain knew the importance of good communication. In fact, he built his entire career around the written and spoken words and used them to his advantage to create timeless novels like Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. However, Samuel Clemens wasn't only concerned with entertaining audiences with clever coming-of-age tales; Twain was also a brilliant social commentator who left much of his literary legacy through insightful, often sarcastic statements such as this one. His mastery of the right word made Mark Twain one of the most celebrated and admired American communicators of all time.

The difference between the right word and almost the right word was recently brought to our company's attention recently during the controversy and dispute over a circulating memo. A few misplaced words essentially changed…

Banning Books in Public Schools

The 1st Amendment to the constitution does guarantee freedom of speech and freedom of the press. However, when children are involved, freedoms often become blurry. In some cases, they are not freedoms at all, when parents or society believes they are protecting children. One example would be the case of banning books in public schools. However, banning books in public schools is unacceptable because it deprives everyone (not just children) of their rights, imposes and fosters normative values, and generally harms the author.

Book banning in public schools is unethical because it deprives every one of their right have the material. While the target audience may be children, there are many adults who read books that are aimed at youth. For example, Harry Potter has been read by old and young alike, and The Hunger Games has been a best seller for many months. Many…