Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 14

Passage:

"Then Jim manned the oars, and we took out after our raft. Now was the first time that I begun to worry about the men--I reckon I hadn't had time to before. I begun to think how dreadful it was, even for murderers, to be in such a fix. I says to myself, there ain't no telling but I might come to be a murderer myself, yet, and then how would I like it? So says I to Jim: 'The first light we see, we'll see land a hundred yards below it or above it, in a place where it's a good hiding-place for you and the skiff, and then I 'll go and fix up some kind of a yarn, and get somebody to go for the that gang and get them out of their scrape, so they can be hung when their time comes.'"

Pages:

47

Comments and Response:

This is further development of the character that is Huck Finn, which shows him to still to be a little boy and a person who respect justice. He is concerned about leaving the murderers on the boat to drown so he makes plans to arrange for their rescue, but wants them to go to jail so that they can be hung for their crimes. I find this interesting because I am pretty sure that most people would not voice something like, "so they can hung when their time comes." I am pretty sure most people would just say that they should go to jail.

Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn 13

Passage:
"'And besides,' I says, 'we might borrow something worth having, out of the captain's stateroom. Seegars, I bet you--and cost five cents apiece, solid cash. Steamboat captains is always rich, and get sixty dollars a month, and they don't care a cent what a thing costs, you know, as long as they want it.'"

Page:
44

Comments and Response:
Although it may not be right, it is interesting how Huck Finn knows how much a Steamboat captain makes. One would expect a person at the age of Huck Finn to be concerned about other things like adventure and playing games. At the age of 13 he is already knowledgeable of things like a job salary, when I was 13 I was concerned about my outfit and my friends thinking if I was cool not about the salary of a Steamboat captain.

Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn 12

Passage:
"'No, you won't. Set down and stay where you are. I ain't going to hurt you, and I ain't going to tell on you, nuther. You just tell me your secret, and trust me. I'll keep it; and what's more, I'll help you. So'll my old man, if you want him to. You see, you're a runaway 'prentice--that's all. It ain't anything. There ain't any harm in it. You've been treated bad, and you made up your mind to cut. Bless you, child, I wouldn't tell on you. Tell me all about it, now--that's a good boy.'"

Page:
39

Comments and Response:
Maybe it is because of all the stranger danger awareness programs I have been to but I get an uneasy feeling from the lady talking. She kind of sends the wrong vibe to me because of the things she said like "I ain't going to hurt you..." even though she said that it kind of makes me believe that she will. Also nobody is just going to go right out and say that they are going to hurt a person that they just met to them in front of them, they have to bait them in first with "milk and cookies" or things to sweeten the deal. I could be completely wrong however and that she is being sincerely honest and she is not trying to hurt Huck Finn and protect him. It seems that during the time that this was written that the people were more willing to help a person in need.

Adventures Of Huckleberry 11

Passage:
"But I didn' have no luck. When we 'uz mos' down to de head er de islan' a man begin to come aft wid de latern. I see it warn't no use fer to wait. so I slid overboad, en struck out fer de islan'."

Pages:
29

Comments and Response:
Expanding upon what I said earlier about Jim the slave, it is still hard to read his lines in the story. When reading them I am not exactly sure how the words that Jim says are pronounced. I have found, however, that reading the words out loud helps me understand it better but there are still parts that do not make sense. Mark Twain went such a long way to make the character of Jim seem unintelligent that it is hard to read, I must say that he was a dedicated writer to do all that even though it makes it hard for me to read it.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 10

Passage:
"'But mind, you said you wouldn't tell--you know you said wouldn't tell, Huck.' 'Well, I did. I said I wouldn't, and I'll stick to it. Honest injun I will. People would call me a low down Ablitionist and despise me for keeping mum--but that don't make no difference.'"

Pages:
28

Comments and Response:
(E) The way that Huck Finn is portrayed by Mark Twain makes Huck Finn a very trustworthy character. Although that Huck Finn could be made fun of for keeping the information of Jim running away a secret he decides to help ol' Jim out and keep it a secret. That kind of reminds me and my friends in that aspect of being loyal and trustworthy because if something like that were to happen we would just keep our mouths shut. Of course if it was serious enough we would have to speak up.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 9

Passage:
"Well, then I happened to think how they always put quicksilver in loaves of bread and float them off because they always go right to the drowned carcass and stop there."

Pages:
25

Comments and Response:
I found it interesting how they have all these old timey methods to find dead bodies. Quicksilver, another name for the element Mercury, in loaves of bread is defiantly a new method that must be researched some more upon. Another thing that grabbed my attention was the name "quicksilver", instead of using the original name of mercury. It could have just been the common name during Mark Twain's I am guessing. 

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 8

This is a different copy of the same book so the pages numbers are different in this copy.

Passage:
"I took the axe and smashed in the door--I beat it and hacked it considerable, a-doing it. I fetched the pig in and took him back nearly to the table and hacked into his throat with the ax, and laid him down on the ground to bleed--I say ground, because it was ground--hard packed, and no boards Well, next I took an old sack and put it a lot of big rocks in it,--all I could drag--and I started it from the pig and dragged it to the door and through the woods down to the river and dumped it in, and down it sunk, out of sight. You could easy see that something had been dragged over the ground. I did wish Tom Sawyer was there, I knowed he would take an interest in this kind of business, and throw in the fancy touches. Nobody could spread himself in such a thing as that.

Pages:
22

Comments and Response:
I find it very interesting how elaborate Huck Finn's escape was from his father. Instead of just making it seem like robbers broke in and stole everything, including him, he went as far as staging his own death. Staging his own death, I thought, was a very thoughtful and elaborate scheme, because one does not simply do that for fun and must be pretty desperate to leave which he was because his father was pretty abusive. It also creates good imagery because of how detailed the fake robber and murder was.

If We Must Die

Passage:
"If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs...
...Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!"

Comment and Response:
(C) Although this poem was written for a specific event, this quote can be connected to any war time.  The one war that this makes think of the most is WWII because of how the Jews were killed by mass murder in the concentration camps. In a way you could call the concentration camps the "inglorious spot" and the Jews the "hogs" that get corralled into those places the same that pigs are before they are slaughtered. The Nazi officers would be the "mad and hungry dogs" which gave the order to kill the Jews. The other war that this reminds of is the Battle of Thermopylae which was adapted into a major motion picture by the name of 300. In that battle the Spartans, although vastly outnumbered, stood strong and fought there hardest until they were defeated and killed. The last two lines of the passage some up the Spartans perfectly in that battle, "Though far outnumbered let us show us brave, And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!" I took this to mean that it doesn't matter how big they are or how hard they hit, the thing that matters is that you stood up to them and got that one hit in.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 7

Passage:

"Every time he got money he got drunk; and every time he got drunk he raised Cain around town; and every time he raised Cain he got jailed."

Page:

31

Comments and Response:

I find the diction strange in this sentence in the sense that instead if using the word ruckus or trouble, Mark Twain used the word Cain. I guess he must of really have liked that word like how I like the word conundrum and melancholy. It could also be credited to the the slang that the country folk in the book that the people or Huck Finn is use to sense  the story is told from his point of view.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 6

Passage:
"Whenever his liquor begun ti work he most always went for the govment. This time he says: 'Call this a govment! why, just look at it and see what it's like. Here's the law a-standing ready yo take a man's son away from him- a man's own son, which he has had all the trouble and all the anxiety and all the expense of raising. Yes, just as that man has got that son raised at last, and ready to go to work and begin to do suthin' for him and give him a rest, the law up and goes for him.'"

Page:
35

Comment and Response:
(R) Just like Huck Finn's dad, Pap, is blaming the "govment" for all his problems, so do the old people in our society today. Although it was Pap's fault that all this stuff is happening to him he is points a finger at the "govment" and says it is there fault all this stuff going on with him. The same with some of the older people in our society that blame everything on the government, although a lot of the time it really is the government that causes the old people trouble b cancelling certain things and taking their social security checks away.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 5

Passage:
"Yo' ole father doan' know yit what he's a-gwyne to do. Sometimes he spec he'll go 'way, en den ag'in he spec he'll stay."

Page:
24

Comments and Response:
Compared to the other characters in the book Jim the slave, seems to be the less educated. His education level is shown in the way that Mark Twain wrote the way that Jim talked to the other characters. I think that this is an accurate interpretation of Jim because back when Mark Twain was alive the black community did not really have the rights to learn and become educated. Another thing to note is that the time period of this book is set back in the day and in the country where the African American would really have a lack of education.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 4

Passage:
"There was an inch of new snow on the ground, and I seen somebody's tracks. They had come come up from the quarry and stood around the stile awhile, and then went on around the garden fence. It was funny they hadn't come in, after standing around so. I couldn't make it out. It was very curious, somehow. I was going to follow around, but I stooped down to look at the tracks first. I didn't notice anything at first, but next I did. There was a cross in the left boot-heel made with big nails, to keep off the devil.
I was up in a second and shining down the hill. I looked over my shoulder ever now and then, but I didn't see nobody."

Pages:
21-22

Comments and Response:
(Q) I wonder why Huck Finn got up and ran so quickly down the hill after seeing the cross in prints? It does not say what they mean or anything like that previously. If I were to guess they probably have something to do with Pap because so far he is the only one who seems to make Huck Finn uncomfortable like that.

Assignment 3

The collection of poetry that I read was from The Complete Tales and Poems: Edgar Allen Poe. Before I answer the prompt I must say that Edgar Allen Poe really did know his stuff and that I can see why he is so famous and held in high esteem.

In regards to the themes that are seen in Edgar Allen Poe’s poetry the most recurring themes are about love, death, and misery . In fact the first poem that I read, The Raven, had part all three themes in it.

“Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.

Eagerly I wished the morrow;-- vainly I had sought to borrow

From my books surcease of sorrow-- sorrow for the lost of Lenore--

For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore--

Nameless here for evermore.”(The Raven, 7-12)

In this quote alone it shows all three of those aspects. He is experiencing misery because of the death of a loved one by the name Lenore. The most prevalent theme in The Raven, however, is misery because throughout the poem the character is being tormented by a Raven in the middle of the night.

“‘Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!’ I shrieked, upstarting--

‘Get thee back into the tempest and the Night’s Plutonian shore!

Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!

Leave my loneliness unbroken!--quit the bust above my door!

Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!’

Quoth the Raven, ‘Nevermore.’”(The Raven, 98-103)

Nevermore is not really tormenting him because Nevermore is a simple raven that is not capable of showing a human trait like contempt. The protagonist however is not in the right mindset so he believes that Nevermore was sent from the pits of hell (Night Plutonian shore being a reference to Pluto, the roman god of the dead) to cause him misery.

Some of Edgar Allen Poe’s poems did not fit into the one of the thematic categories that are shown in his works like The Coliseum or The Hymn. The theme in The Coliseum is unique because while reading Poe’s other poems I did not come across another poem that had a similar theme. The theme of this poem was how rich the Roman culture was and how even now as the coliseum is left in ruin that it is still inspiring.
“Type of the antique Rome! Rich reliquary

Of lofty contemplation left to Time

By buried centuries of pomp and power!

At length--at length--after so many days

Of weary pilgrimage and burning thirst

(Thirst for the springs of lore that in thee lie),

I kneel, an altered and an humble man,

Amid thy shadows, and so drink within

My very soul thy grandeur, gloom, and glory!”(The Coliseum, 1-9)

Another thing that sets this poem apart is that it is based on the actual coliseum that was in Rome where gladiator fights and many of other events took place. This is also the only one that I have read so far that mentions anything to do with history as a theme.

The Hymn is also special in the way that it does not fall into one of those three thematic categories. This poem’s theme is looking to a brighter future and letting go of the past, kind of like hakuna matata (but this the poem came years before it).

“Now, when storms of Fate o’ercast

Darkly my Present and my Past

Let my Future radiant shine

With sweet hopes of thee and thine”(Hymn, 9-12)

With the line “Let my Future radiant shine” the theme becomes clear, which is just another way of saying let the future shine brightly on me.

The most unique poem that I read from Edgar Allen Poe is his poem titled A Valentine because the theme is about love and deciphering the mysterious code within the poem. The code is the name of the person Poe was writing the poem for.

“For her this rhyme is penned, whose luminous eyes,

Brightly expressive as the twins of Loeda,

Shall find her own sweet name, that, nestling lies

Upon the page, enwrapped from every reader.

Search narrowly the lines!--they hold a treasure...”(A Valentine, 1-5)

Not only does he state the there is a name hidden within the lines he even brags that finding it would be a tedious task. Lucky for me and to everyone else the way to find the name has already been deciphered. The way to find it is to read the first letter in the first line, the second letter in the second line, the third letter in the third line, and so on until the end of the poem, Happy hunting!

Assignment #2

A passage that strikes me as profound or insightful in The Looking Glass Wars is the scene where Redd kills her sister Queen Genevieve. "'Off with your head,' Redd ordered , pulling the energy bolt out of the floor. 'No!' Genevieve struggled against the stems of the roses. Her people would be abandoned to Redd. And Alyss... just a child. Redd swung the bolt hard. Genevieve's head went one way, her body another and her crown rolled along the floor liked a dropped coin." That scene was one of the most intense scenes in the entire book. It takes a lot to take a life because the knowledge of killing someone stays with that person forever, but to take the life of an immediate family member must weigh down on the person even more.

A passage that I found humorous was when Redd was training her troops to prepare to attack the Heart palace but some problems arise. "'I tell you to think black thoughts and you come up with that?!' the lieutenant had screamed. 'Is a guinea pig bad? Do you consider a guinea pig the representation of all that is evil?' 'Maybe... if it's an evil guinea pig.'” The problem with most of the troops that Redd had recruited weren't that skilled in imagination and didn't have a strong drive to do evil.

The overall theme of this book is the loss of innocence. This is expressed when Dodge sees his father, Sir Justice, murdered in front of him. "Dodge saw what was about to happen . 'Watch this,' he said to Alyss, proud of his father's skills and bravery. But the Cat had no trouble dealing with the leader of the palace guard. With the back of his hand, he knocked Sir Justice to the ground, sent the man's sword skittering across the floor and out of reach. The Cat picked up Sir Justice and swiped him with a claw. " Having his dad killed in front of him forced Dodge to grow up quickly and become a man before he was ready.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 3

Passage:
"'But who are we going to rob?-houses, or cattles, or-' 'Stuff! stealing cattle and such things ain't robbery; it's burglary,' says Tom Sawyer. 'We ain't burglars. That ain't no sort of style."

Page:
11

Comments and Passages:
There is a since of humor and irony in the way the boys discuss what the future of the gang is going to go. They say that they are going to be robbers but what one of the boys suggest that they do is completely harmless and contrary to what they wanted to do. It is ironic when Tom Sawyer says, "We ain't burglars. That ain't no sort of style." because they plan on being robbers which has little to no more style than being burglars. In fact being a robber is actually worse because they intend to hurt people while burglarizing a house hurts no one but the owners pocket.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 2

Passage:
"Everybody was willing. So Tom got out a sheet of paper that he had wrote the oath on, and read it. It swore that every boy to stick to the band, and never tell any of the secrets; and if anybody done anything to any boy in the band, whichever boy was ordered to kill that person and hos family must do it, and he mustn't eat and he mustn't sleep till he had killed the and hacked a cross in their breasts, which was the sign of the band. And nobody that didn't belong to the band could use that mark, and if he did he must be sued; and if he done it again he must be killed. And if anybody that belonged to the band told the secrets, he must have his throat cut, and then have his carcass burnt up and the ashes scattered all around, and his name blotted off the list with blood and never mentioned again by the gang, but have a curse put on it and be forgot forever.
Everybody said it was a beautiful oath..."

Page:
10

Comments and Response:
As I read this quote the only thing that was going through my mind was this was a pretty violent oath for some youngsters. It surprised me that people that young would make a oath that violent even though I am pretty sure that they won't carry through with those threats if someone were to break the oath. Also in the midst of all that craziness they add some humor. The humor being that they would sue a person on the first offense of using their sign and kill them if the same person did it again.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Passage:
"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."

Pages:
1

Comments and Response:
(Q) I don't know whether the publisher missed the grammar on the this sentence or if Mark Twain intended to write like that. If it is the latter of the two then I am just going to assume that this was the way they talked back then. Even more on that note, if the rest of the book is like this then it will prove to be a difficult read because of how grammar has progressed from that time period.

The Looking Glass Wars 5

Passage:

"I've finished running from you, Redd. It's time for you to run."

Pages:

318

Comments and Response:

This is the turning point in the book when the main protagonist, Alyss, takes a stand against the main antagonist, her aunt Redd. This challenge is significant because it finally shows that Alyss believes that she is strong enough to take her on and reclaim her queendom. This challenge also shows the main powers in this book clashing, White imagination and Black imagination.

The Looking Glass Wars 4

Passage:
"Crystal Transport, also known as looking glass transport, was not unusual in Wonderland. Most looking glasses served as portals to the Crystal Continuum, a network of byways that enabled any and every Wonderlander to enter through one looking glass and exit from another. Focused looking glasses led to specific destinations (like the corner of Wondertropolis Way and Tyman Street). Unfocused looking glasses allowed travelers to choose their own destinations, provided that there were looking glasses at those destinations out of which they could be reflected."

Pages:
68

Comment and Response:
Frank Beddor effectively created a simplistic yet complicated system of transportation for the world of Wonderland. It is simple in the way that it is explained and is a concept that is easy enough to grasp. It is complicated because not everyone can just get up and use it, it takes practice to be a good  a crystal transporter just like it takes practice to be a good driver in our world.