Students took a brief reading quiz. Then we discussed whether or not Jim and Huck are friends. We noted that although Huck wants to believe it is a friendship, societal pressures make it an impossibility anywhere but on the raft. Whereas we are told the story through the narration of a young white boy, we must be wary readers and note what Huck may not realize. For example, Jim may not truly be happy to see Huck at the Grangerfords. Perhaps he intended to leave without Huck and regrets his discovery, but must keep up appearances with Huck. A lifelong slave, Jim would certainly have experience managing perceptions of the whites in his life.
We also viewed images of Mark Twain in his white suit. We discussed the ways in which the suit symbolizes hypocrisy and how Twain may be using it as a way of calling out his own hypocrisy as well as indirectly calling for others, particularly in the "genteel" Southern culture, to recognize the ways in which they too may be "whited sepulchers."
Homework: Finish the first draft of the "Modest Proposal."
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