1) page 111-- Just after Sherburn has dissipated the mob with a speech on how the average person is a coward, Huck lies to himself by also leaving saying, "I could a staid, if I'd a wanted to, but I didn't want to."
2) page 114-- When the audience in the King and Duke's Royal Nonesuch show realizes they have been conned, they respond "But we don't want to be the laughing-stock of this whole town, I reckon, and never hear the last of this thing as long as we live. No. What we want, is to go out of here quiet, and talk this show up, and sell the rest of the town! Then we'll all be in the same boat. Ain't that sensible?" The people perpetuate a lie to save face.
3) page 127-- When the King is posing as the Wilks brother, he realizes he has been using the wrong word to talk about funeral obsequies, calling them funeral orgies instead. He covers his track with an absurd explanation of the Greek and Hebrew roots of the word "orgies" arguing it is actually the best word. This is one of the most grotesque examples of covering the truth with a lie in plain sight. Twain seems to indicate how absurd the lie is through the meanings of the supposed word roots: orgo=outside, open, abroad and jeesum=to plant, to cover up. Something is indeed being covered up in wide open view, namely the truth. The people want to be deceived and so they allow this disgusting con to proceed, even when the truth of it stinks to high heavens.
Homework:
- Rhetorical Notebook entry for "The Decay of the Art of Lying" is due tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment