Thursday, November 6, 2014

Huck Finn - Discussion #1 - Chapters 1-13 (due Monday, November 10)



Respond to the following question in the comment section:

Pick a key scene from the first thirteen chapters and analyze it closely.  Your analysis should include the following:
1) a brief summary of the scene
2) a claim in which you identify the stage of the Hero's Journey the scene belongs to 
3) an explanation of the character(s) values
4) a discussion of any archetypes or symbols found in the scene  
*You must write in complete sentences using claims, evidence, and warrants.* 

18 comments:

  1. i think i finally got this to work

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  2. The scene that I chose that identifies the hero's journey is in the end of chapter 13 when Huck Finn saves the 3 men on the ship wreck that where going to drown because of him stealing their boat in the first place. The scene begins with Huck and Jim wanting to know what is on the wrecked ship so they decide to go ahead and look at what is on it. When they look they find 3 men, one tied up and two standing over him with a gun planning on how to kill him. At this point Jim decides to leave but curiosity gets the best of Huck and he decides to get closer and see what is happening. "By this time Jim was gone for the raft. I was just a-billing with curiosty-" (pg 70). As soon as Huck gets closer he hears the two men planning on how they wanted to kill the third man making up their mind that they where going to drown him. Huck tries to get away but he finds himself stuck and the only way he and Jim can leave is by stealing the 2 men's boat which they where going to use to escape. Long story short, Huck and Jim steal the 2 men's ship and make a run for it leaving all three of the men to drown. Huck doesn't feel right after he does this and he feels guilty, even calling himself a murderer." 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?" (pg74). This shows Hucks initiation in his hero journey because he questions himself and his character, wondering if he was any different than the 2 men that where going to kill that one guy if he just leaves them on the wreck to drown. So, Huck decides to return and get help for the 3 men using his fake persona. This marks his return in the Hero's Journey, where he brings the boon of his quest back for the benefit of his people. This scene shows a lot of growth in Huck Finn overall because he realizes who he wants to be and in this case it wasn't a murderer

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    1. This is a really good scene looking at Huck's character development and him realizing his own humanity.

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    2. This scene is important because it shows a change in Huck's Character.

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  3. the scene i chose was in chapters 6 as it clearly identifies the conflict with a father part of the heroes journey. earlier in the story Huck's dad "pap" shows up unexpectedly and causes all kinds of trouble as he is a crazy drunk. after trying and failing to reform him pap tries to sue the judge for Huck's wealth which leads to chapter six. if that is not evidence enough of a conflict pap eventually takes Huck and locks him in a secluded cabin where he stays until in a drunken rampage Huck turns the table and ends up finding himself pointing a gun at his own father. If that isn't a father sun conflict I'm not sure what it.

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    1. If you were in Huck's position, what would you have done?

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  4. The scene I chose occurred in chapter 6 when Huck Finn's father took him away to a cabin for two months.The scene started when Huck's father took him three miles up river to the Illinois shore where they stayed in a cabin. Huck and his father hunted fish and game while living there.
    Huck enjoyed the fact that he didn't have to live at the widow's house anymore and that he didn't have to study, read books, and he could smoke."It was kind of lazy and jolly, laying off comfortable all day,smoking and fishing, and no books nor study(page 26)." But Huck got annoyed and scared when his father started to lock him in the the cabin while he went and traded the fish they got for whiskey. He even beat Huck. "But by and by pap got too handy with his hick'ry, and I couldn't stand it. I was all over welts(page 26)." Later on Huck's dad said that the widow's lawyer might make trouble and that he wouldn't let them take him. He said he would hide him seven miles away and that's when Huck new he had to run away.
    Huck would run away when pap was drunk but when he was drunk he started chasing Huck around the cabin with a knife and eventually stopped and sat in front of the cabin door. He said he would sleep and get his rest before he killed him. Huck then grabbed the gun and pointed it at pap waiting for him to make the slightest move.
    This scene refers to crossing the first threshold as Huck is leaving his home for the first time and begins a journey with his dad.
    This scene also is an example of the father-son conflict archetype because Huck has been separated from his father for years and never realized how much of a terrible person he is and how much the Widow(first mentor) actually cared about his future by making him read and study for school even though he didn't want to.
    Pap's values are his abusive behavior and his ignorance. He is also racist and is a manipulator as he uses his son to get whiskey.

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    1. I think Huck has gained a lot from his father's mistakes and how he treats Huck, and I think that Huck is very brave for how he stands up to his dad.

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    2. This is important scene in the book because it defines Huck's character and who he is.

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  5. The scene I chose was in chapter 6 when Huck's father went to the judge to get his money and tried to tell him about Huck's schooling. He doesn't want Huck to go to school anymore, but Huck goes anyways. Huck says, "I didn't want to go to school much before, but i reckoned I'd go now to spite pap." This demonstrates how Huck is going against his father which is unlike him. He used to be afraid of his father as a child, but then his father left. This represents a father-son conflict in Huck's relationship with his father, because his father was non-existent in Huck's life. He was always drunk and never did anything to treat him well. Huck probably has anger towards his father because of what he did to Huck and how he left him, so Huck is trying to go against his father now that he has come back. Huck's father says, "You drop that school you hear? I'll learn people to bring up a boy to put on air over his own father and let on to be better'n what HE is." Huck's father tries to convince Huck that school is pointless and that he can't go anymore. He goes on, "Your mother couldn't read, and she couldn't write, nuther, before she died. None of the family couldn't before they died." He tries to make Huck think that not being able to read and write and go to school is okay because that was what their family did, but Huck doesn't care. He was living with Mrs.Watson and he learned how to live properly and go to school, which his father is not used to. I think that Huck has overcome his fear of his father that he used to have as a child and realized that he is not the same person he used to be. He is in a battle between good and evil, except he is going against his dad out of "payback".

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  6. The scene i chose is from chapter 13 and it is when Huck and Jim steal the robbers boat when they they are robbing the steam boat and then Huck realizes what he did was wrong so when they get to shore he sends a ferrymen back out to save them and even though the robbers didn't survive Huck still feels proud of what he did. In the heroes journey this is Crossing the threshold because Huck is changing his ways and beliefs because before he would have just let them die but now he values life more and wants them to live. I think Huck's values have changed because he values life more, proof of this is sending help for the robbers, before he would haven just let them die and now he wants them to live, so not only does he value his own life but he values the lives of others. Archetypes in chapter are, the raft. The raft represents the past because it floats away and they lose the raft. Another archetype is the robbers boat and that represents the present, and the new life of Huck and Jim.

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  7. The scene i chose is from chapter 7. In the scene Huck is at his dads cabin, his dad is out getting whiskey when he escapes. Huck makes a plan to make it look like someone had broke into the house and killed him. First he took an ax and started chopping the door in. Then he got a pig and slit his throat and let him bleed out on the floor. Huck got a bag of rocks and dragged it down to the river. Then he picked up the dead pig and threw him into the river. He took a bag of meal and ripped a hole in the bottom and made a trail of feed from the house to the river some hundred yards away to make it look like the robbers took the meal. I think that in the hero's journey this scene apply's to the belly of the whale. The belly of the whale is when someone "dies" (doesn't really die) but everyone thinks they are dead. So this scene shows how Huck's dad will think that he has been murdered. Huck Values Freedom and isolationism. He values freedom because he is the type of kid that does what he wants when he wants and doesn't care what anybody thinks about him. He values isolationism because he enjoys being alone with out anybody telling him what to do Some archetypes in the scene are "the Journey" because Huck leaves his dads cabin to live on his own.

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  8. The scene i picked is in chapter 4. This is when Jim tells everyone about his "magic hairball". This scene is important because ever since chapter 2 when Jim got the coin from the devil, he has been tricked into thinking he is possessed. Huck gave Jim an unpolished quarter for his magic. Jim the believed that the quarter and hairball could tell fortunes. The hairball told Jim that Huck's dad had two angels around him. One white and one black. Then he goes on to say that Huck's going to marry a poor gal first the by and by marry the rich one. Jim tells Huck to stay away from water. I believe that this scene is part of the supernatural aid in the heroes journey. The hairball protects Jim and gives him power to tell fortunes. "So the hairball talked to Jim, and Jim told it to me" (Twain 17). The magic weapon situational archetype is used in this scene. The hairball represents Jim's piece of technology that has the ability to combat evil and prove his identity. The archetype of a circle is used in this part of the book. The coin and hairball are both circular. Circles stand for thought, hearing and sound. Jim used them both to "hear" his fortunes.

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  9. I chose the scene in chapter 4 where Huck finds his Pap's footprints in the snow. Curious about what his father wants, after consulting Jim's magical hairball, Jim tells Huck that his father has two angels: one black/bad, one white/good, and it is uncertain which will come out in the end. That very night, he finds Pap in his bedroom. Huck finding the footprints embark his call to adventure. He sees the footprints which are mysterious and odd, and is drawn and curious to what it may be. Besides Tom planting an adventurous seed in Huck's brain, this definitely makes it take off. Archetypes found in this scene can be the angels- black symbolizing bad, white symbolizing good. Jim also tells him to stay clear of water because that is where he will die. Water is a symbol for mystery, darkness, etc.

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  10. I chose the scene from chapter 7 where Huck decides when he finds a canoe that he will fake his own death. This allows him to take his canoe and go down river to Jackson's island. This scene follows with the crossing the threshold part of the hero's journey. In the story he goes from living at pap's cabin which was his home for a while and he moves to a new area. The definition of crossing the threshold is "the hero commits to leaving the Ordinary World and entering a new region or condition with unfamiliar rules and values"(from the hero's journey list). And in this chapter he commits to a new region where he is not bound by rules of pap or anyone else. He left his ordinary world to enter a new unknown.
    This character is very self oriented and about what can help him. Very much an individual and doesn't ask for help or permission he just does.
    Archetypes from this chapter would be the journey. He leaves home to escape pap and that world although his reason for leaving is unclear to me.

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  11. I chose the scene from chapter 6 at the beginning of the chapter. This part is when Pap shows up and takes Huck away because the Widow told him to stay away. In this scene pap has been fighting with the judge and widow trying to keep them from taking Huck and his money away from him. The widow tells him to stay away from her house and Huck so he comes and takes Huck away "and took me up the river about three mile in a skiff and crossed over to the Illinois shore where it was woody and there warnt no houses but an old log hut in the place where the timber was so thick you couldn't find it if you didn't know where it was."

    Heros journey:This is the Call to Adventure in the heros journey because it causes all of the following because he has to escape and start his journey

    Symbols/Archetypes: (Wilderness vs. Haven = Cabin vs. Widows house and town) (Devil figure=pap) (Earth mother= widow) (hero=Huck)

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  12. The scene i chose is chapter 6. Huck was living with the widow for a period of time, being well taken care for. When all of a sudden when he becomes rich his father steps back into his life. Huck's father has no care for him but only the money. When Huck gave away the money his father sent the judge to court. Huck was later forced to live with his father and gets locked up like an animal. Huck being locked is an example of an archetype by showing his trapped"He kept me with him all the time,he always locked the door and put the key under his head" (Twain 28). When he cuts open a hole to escape that shows his freedom, that is where his hero journey starts. Huck's values in life are kind and gentle.

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