Today we began reading together from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. We noted the following:
1) Why would Twain begin the novel with a notice to not try to find meaning in it? Perhaps this is like a no trespassing sign which invites the curious and mischievous to trespass. Certainly the likes of Tom Sawyer would have seen this as an invitation.
2) What theme(s) are introduced in the novel's opening paragraph? Everybody lies at one time or another, but few will acknowledge it; instead we "tell the truth, mainly" or we "stretch" the truth. The very act of writing fiction is telling a lie so that everyone will believe it is true, and perhaps sometimes the lie is more true than reality. We also noted that from the very first paragraph, Twain sets up a contrast between Huck and Tom.
3) For Huck, civilization is a form of bondage. He sees the hypocrisy in so-called civilized society.
4) Twain juxtaposes the Christianity of the Widow Douglas with Huck's superstition, inviting the readers to see the similarities. After all, there is little difference between Huck's tying up a bit of hair to ward off bad luck and the Widow's "grumbling" a blessing over her meal to ward off ill effects.
5) Why does Tom pay for the candles he "steals"? This seems to be in the same vein as his demand that for Huck to join his band of robbers, Huck must first go back to the widow and be "respectable." He is a thrill seeker, but only for fictional thrills.
No homework.
AP
We discussed strategies for achieving coherence in essay writing. We defined a paragraph as one or more sentences that coherently express an idea. Likewise a sentence is one or more words that coherently express an idea, and an essay in similar fashion.
Strategies for coherence include:
- Repetition
- Emphasis
- Transitions
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