Christina DeSario
AP English- Mr. George
8•27•09
Huckleberry Finn- prompt 2
Huckleberry Finn
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn can be compared to these famous lyrics, “Just a small town girl, living in a lonely world. She took the midnight train going anywhere. Just a city boy, born and raised in south Detroit. He took the midnight train going anywhere” (Journey). A young boy, from a small southern town, on a raft to God knows where. Then Jim, a slave headed towards freedom, on the raft with him. Two unlikely people meet up and end up on the journey of their lives that leads to the two losing connection with the the world and discovering more about life from each other and those they meet along the way than everybody they had left behind on land.
Through Huckleberry and Jim’s adventures, the reader can easily see the difference between Huck and the rest of society. The Grangerfords, for example, had over one hundred slaves, whereas Huck never had one. While living with them, he was given one named Jack, although Jack “had a monstrous easy time, because I warn’t used to having anybody do anything for me” (Twain 118). Had he wanted to, it is possible Huck could have made Jim his slave while they were on the raft together, simply because of the huge gap between the two races. However, that never passed through Huck’s mind, and he simply did as he wanted and allowed Jim to do the same.
It was very early on where Huck gets disconnected from the rest of the world. That is shown when he goes back to his hometown dressed as a girl for a while a few days after he feigns his death. He sees a new person has moved into a house that “hadn’t been lived in for a long time” (65), and goes there to get information. Already, there is a gap forming between who he was, and who he will become.
During the raft ride, Huck was able to put things together on his own. He was not strongly influenced by those around him, because only Jim was around him. Because he was surrounded only by a black man hoping for freedom, racism did not play a large role in his life, although his old habits were still there. He was still racist, because he had grown up around racism, and he once thought,
“Well, I can tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, because I begun to get it through my head that he was almost free- and who who was to blame for it? Why, me... I tried to make out to myself that I warn’t to blame, because I didn’t run Jim off from his rightful owner; but it warn’t no use, conscious comes up and says, every time, ‘But you knowed he was running for his freedom, and you could a paddled ashore and told somebody’” (100).
Huck still has trouble seeing Jim as a real human, and sees him still as a piece of property, or more like a pet, from the way he sounds so sad about it. Even though he still had racist thoughts, he was still able to interact with Jim like two normal people, instead of like a master and slave.
Huck meets two men. One says he is the Duke of Bridgewater, while the other claims to be the Dauphin. While at first Jim and Huck believe their lies, “it didn’t take me long to make up my mind that these liars warn’t no kings nor dukes, at all, but just low-down humbugs and frauds” (137). Huck knew they were not what they claimed to be, he ignored it and allowed them to use him and Jim as slaves. He had good reason for doing this, and explains very maturely that he “never said nothing, never let on; kept it to myself; it’s the best way; then you don’t have no quarrels, and don’t get into no trouble... If I never learnt nothing else out out pap, I learnt the the best way to get along with his kind of people is to let them have their way” (136). He kept his mouth shut and the truth to himself. This was a very mature decision on his part. For a young boy to decide to keep a secret such as that without making a fuss makes him more adult than the cons who tricked an uneducated man and a young kid for their own greedy purposes.
Huck was more of a man than most men in the book. He says, after Colonel Sherburn lectures the crowd about men and they all leave, “I could a staid, if I’d a wanted to, but I didn’t want to” (159). He says this in a very relaxed tone that makes him sound unafraid. Although, he probably was, since Sherburn was aiming a gun at the mob, but he sounded like he was trying to have courage. He was trying to be someone bigger and better than himself, and his journey along the river probably had a lot to do with that, along with the strength he learned from his abusive father.
When the Wilks sisters lost their money, Huck manned up. Each time he talked to another sister, he kept thinking, “this is another one that I’m letting him rob her out of her money” (188), and it bothered him. Finally he decided, “I’ll hive that money for them or bust” (188). Huck liked the Wilks, and did not want to cheat them, like the king and duke were so willing to do.
The Duke sells Jim into slavery, and then Huck changes very dramatically in the way he thinks. Although he had racist tendencies in the beginning, such as when he believed that it was his fault Jim was going to be free, he suddenly becomes ready to fight for his friend. Huck at first wants to do the right thing by the racist way of thinking, but he realizes that is not the truly right thing to do: “I’d see him standing my watch on top of his’n, stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping... and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling the men we had a smallpox onboard, and he was so grateful... and then I happened to look around and see that paper” (228). This metaphora in Huck makes him decide that, even though he believes it is wrong, he must save Jim.
Huck later says about Jim, “I knowed he was white inside, and I reckoned he’d say what he did say” (290). The racism that once held on so tightly to him was loosening its grip. He was not full through with it, but he saw Jim as human when he called him white inside. He risked his life to save a black man, and accepted him as something more than what other people saw them as.
Tom wanting to get away from Aunt Sally in the end is a sign of maturity. After being on his own, instead of wanting to relax with a happy home, he is ready to live on his own again and take care of himself.
Two unlikely people meet up and end up on the journey of their lives that leads to the two losing connection with the the world and discovering more about life from each other and those they meet along the way than everybody they had left behind on land. Through the tough times and the fun times, Huck took his experiences and became a better person through them.He became a good, strong man through his experiences. He was ahead of his time for the south as he learned white people and black people are the same, dispite their color. “Everybody wants a thrill. Do anything to roll the dice just one more time” (Journey) is the simplist way to put Huck Finn’s journey in words.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Saturday, August 1, 2009
The Great Gatsby Prompt 1 (I'M SO GLAD THIS IS DONE!)
Christina DeSario
AP English- Mr. George
7•31•09
The Great Gatsby prompt 1
The Great Gatsby- Prompt One
To see the future, one must look through realistic eyes. To believe one will become president, or rich, or some other big dream that children believe is not very realistic, and will end up forgotten or crushed, depending on the person who is pondering. Gatsby was the type of person whose dreams do not fade away, but are crushed by an outside force. He held on to his hopes, because he had so few, which made him unable to know how to deal with them. F. Scott Fitzgerald develops a theme of pessimism through the was Gatsby held on so fervently to his dreams while only looking at them as from outside of a glass box.
Gatsby’s love for Daisy keeps him close to her, but Daisy’s marriage to Tom keeps him away. He lives in a house across the water from her, where he can see a small light from her dock. The water is their separation, a blockade that keeps him from his love. This is the worst outcome possible. To know the one you love is right across the water, but when you have no courage to get there because that person is married is much worse than not knowing where your love is at all. It is like hanging a carrot in front of the horse’s face by a pole so that they will continue on, in a vain chase for the treat. It is a torture, and that is part of Gatsby’s problem. He adds to his sadness by watching Daisy without ever even seeing her, instead of trying to move on: “’If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your home across the bay,’ said Gatsby. “You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock’” (Fitzgerald 92). He knows where Daisy is, and she never leaves his mind. That little green light was his carrot that drove him to Daisy.
The American dream is to be rich and in love. It is to be financially secure and have a big yard,dog, grill and a lot of friends. Gatsby has a large house and, although he does not have a lot of friends, as Nick finds out after Gatsby’s death, he has parties and he is in love. His unreciprocated love leaves his American dream unfinished and useless, like a halfway-knitted scarf. It left him feeling incomplete and wanting more. It left him waiting for her, as if she were supposed to simply know to come to him. Because she does not come, it leaves him grim and lost. Jordan Baker said,
“‘I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties, some night,’ went on Jordan, ‘but she never did... I thought he’d go mad:
‘I don’t want anything out of the way!’ he kept saying. ‘I want to see her right next door’” (79).
He did not want to lose Daisy, so he kept out hope instead of taking the initiative to go see her. He waited for his dream to come to him, instead of going towards his dream.
Gatsby achieved so many things that others could not. He was rich and held huge parties. He had a house so big that he did not even use all of the rooms. He even had butlers and maids and chefs at his beck and call. Although he had so many material possessions, but he was not happy. He was not greedy; he just wanted something more. Fulfillment is something that is different for everybody. For him to be fulfilled, he would need to attract Daisy. That was why he had all of these material possessions: so that Daisy would love him more than her husband, Tom.
Fitzgerald is showing that, even though one can come close, they can never fully accomplish their hopes of America’s promise. They can never be totally happy. Nick is also an example of this. His love affair with Jordan had no real reason to be cut short. He was still, “half in love with her” (177) but decided to end it there, because he did not want to be around the people Gatsby knew. He turned away from something he still wanted and moved on, pushing away the thoughts of love and happiness- something no one searching for what America has to offer would take. That is because Fitzgerald is adopting “Twain’s theme” (George Will) of the inability to achieve what people believe should be achieved.
Nick and Jordan are pushed away from each other, still in love but too prideful to apologize to the other. Daisy and Tom left Gatsby and Myrtle behind, barely even grieving their dead lovers’ bodies. Gatsby, whom everyone thought was happy, was left with no one at his funeral. The owl-eyed man Nick had seen in Gatsby’s library said, “‘The poor son-of-a-bitch,’ he said” (Fitzgerald 175). Gatsby had no real friends. He did not even have Daisy.
Daisy knew that her husband was cheating on her. To get him back, she began an affair with Gatsby, and she told herself she loved him to keep from feeling guilty. When Gatsby died, she sent nothing, did not call, and did not even come to the funeral. She and her husband left as fast as they could and got out of their house, putting the terrible past behind them. Nick calls to find out, “I called up Daisy half an hour after we found him... But she and Tom had gone away early that afternoon, and taken baggage with them” (164). Daisy, who had seemed so innocent and in love with Gatsby left him dead, without even a word of remorse, and went along with her husband in an attempt to make believe nothing ever happened. This shows how she did not really care for Gatsby as he believed when he said, “‘Your wife doesn’t love you,’ said Gatsby,. ‘She’s never loved you. She loves me’” (130.) Gatsby was too confident.
Tom, who was in love with Myrtle, as explained when he told Nick, “‘And if you think I didn’t have my share of suffering- look here, when I went to give up that flat... I sat down and cried like a bay. By God it was awful-” (178-179). Although he made it seem as if he loved his mistress, he had gone along with Daisy after her and Gatsby’s deaths, and got away.
Jordan lost Nick, and said she was engaged to another man. Nick did not believe her, but still allowed her to leave his life, and the two lost each other. Jordan continued to play golf and Nick went on with his life, just as Daisy and Tom went along with their lives, and they moved on as if nothing had ever brought them together and then torn them apart.
F. Scott Fitzgerald develops a theme of pessimism through the was Gatsby held on so fervently to his dreams while only looking at them as from outside of a glass box. Fitzgerald gave Gatsby everything: money, popularity, and power, but he neglected to allow Gatsby to have what he wanted. Like the well-taken-care-of horse who sees the carrot only inches away, there is a dream lingering before all of our very eyes, just waiting to be snatched, but out of our power to get.
AP English- Mr. George
7•31•09
The Great Gatsby prompt 1
The Great Gatsby- Prompt One
To see the future, one must look through realistic eyes. To believe one will become president, or rich, or some other big dream that children believe is not very realistic, and will end up forgotten or crushed, depending on the person who is pondering. Gatsby was the type of person whose dreams do not fade away, but are crushed by an outside force. He held on to his hopes, because he had so few, which made him unable to know how to deal with them. F. Scott Fitzgerald develops a theme of pessimism through the was Gatsby held on so fervently to his dreams while only looking at them as from outside of a glass box.
Gatsby’s love for Daisy keeps him close to her, but Daisy’s marriage to Tom keeps him away. He lives in a house across the water from her, where he can see a small light from her dock. The water is their separation, a blockade that keeps him from his love. This is the worst outcome possible. To know the one you love is right across the water, but when you have no courage to get there because that person is married is much worse than not knowing where your love is at all. It is like hanging a carrot in front of the horse’s face by a pole so that they will continue on, in a vain chase for the treat. It is a torture, and that is part of Gatsby’s problem. He adds to his sadness by watching Daisy without ever even seeing her, instead of trying to move on: “’If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your home across the bay,’ said Gatsby. “You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock’” (Fitzgerald 92). He knows where Daisy is, and she never leaves his mind. That little green light was his carrot that drove him to Daisy.
The American dream is to be rich and in love. It is to be financially secure and have a big yard,dog, grill and a lot of friends. Gatsby has a large house and, although he does not have a lot of friends, as Nick finds out after Gatsby’s death, he has parties and he is in love. His unreciprocated love leaves his American dream unfinished and useless, like a halfway-knitted scarf. It left him feeling incomplete and wanting more. It left him waiting for her, as if she were supposed to simply know to come to him. Because she does not come, it leaves him grim and lost. Jordan Baker said,
“‘I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties, some night,’ went on Jordan, ‘but she never did... I thought he’d go mad:
‘I don’t want anything out of the way!’ he kept saying. ‘I want to see her right next door’” (79).
He did not want to lose Daisy, so he kept out hope instead of taking the initiative to go see her. He waited for his dream to come to him, instead of going towards his dream.
Gatsby achieved so many things that others could not. He was rich and held huge parties. He had a house so big that he did not even use all of the rooms. He even had butlers and maids and chefs at his beck and call. Although he had so many material possessions, but he was not happy. He was not greedy; he just wanted something more. Fulfillment is something that is different for everybody. For him to be fulfilled, he would need to attract Daisy. That was why he had all of these material possessions: so that Daisy would love him more than her husband, Tom.
Fitzgerald is showing that, even though one can come close, they can never fully accomplish their hopes of America’s promise. They can never be totally happy. Nick is also an example of this. His love affair with Jordan had no real reason to be cut short. He was still, “half in love with her” (177) but decided to end it there, because he did not want to be around the people Gatsby knew. He turned away from something he still wanted and moved on, pushing away the thoughts of love and happiness- something no one searching for what America has to offer would take. That is because Fitzgerald is adopting “Twain’s theme” (George Will) of the inability to achieve what people believe should be achieved.
Nick and Jordan are pushed away from each other, still in love but too prideful to apologize to the other. Daisy and Tom left Gatsby and Myrtle behind, barely even grieving their dead lovers’ bodies. Gatsby, whom everyone thought was happy, was left with no one at his funeral. The owl-eyed man Nick had seen in Gatsby’s library said, “‘The poor son-of-a-bitch,’ he said” (Fitzgerald 175). Gatsby had no real friends. He did not even have Daisy.
Daisy knew that her husband was cheating on her. To get him back, she began an affair with Gatsby, and she told herself she loved him to keep from feeling guilty. When Gatsby died, she sent nothing, did not call, and did not even come to the funeral. She and her husband left as fast as they could and got out of their house, putting the terrible past behind them. Nick calls to find out, “I called up Daisy half an hour after we found him... But she and Tom had gone away early that afternoon, and taken baggage with them” (164). Daisy, who had seemed so innocent and in love with Gatsby left him dead, without even a word of remorse, and went along with her husband in an attempt to make believe nothing ever happened. This shows how she did not really care for Gatsby as he believed when he said, “‘Your wife doesn’t love you,’ said Gatsby,. ‘She’s never loved you. She loves me’” (130.) Gatsby was too confident.
Tom, who was in love with Myrtle, as explained when he told Nick, “‘And if you think I didn’t have my share of suffering- look here, when I went to give up that flat... I sat down and cried like a bay. By God it was awful-” (178-179). Although he made it seem as if he loved his mistress, he had gone along with Daisy after her and Gatsby’s deaths, and got away.
Jordan lost Nick, and said she was engaged to another man. Nick did not believe her, but still allowed her to leave his life, and the two lost each other. Jordan continued to play golf and Nick went on with his life, just as Daisy and Tom went along with their lives, and they moved on as if nothing had ever brought them together and then torn them apart.
F. Scott Fitzgerald develops a theme of pessimism through the was Gatsby held on so fervently to his dreams while only looking at them as from outside of a glass box. Fitzgerald gave Gatsby everything: money, popularity, and power, but he neglected to allow Gatsby to have what he wanted. Like the well-taken-care-of horse who sees the carrot only inches away, there is a dream lingering before all of our very eyes, just waiting to be snatched, but out of our power to get.
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